This morning we left La Paz, Bolivia and flew into Cusco,
Peru. The flight was absolutely gorgeous! Probably one of the prettiest flights
I have ever been on. Both cities are located in the Andes Mountains, so we
could see the mountains during the entire flight. When you fly, apparently the
height you fly at is based off of sea level, not the land below you. So we
weren’t flying all the high in comparison to the height of the mountain peaks.
It was surprising to see how many little towns were up that high in the
mountains as we flew.
When we landed in Cusco I already felt better with the
altitude. I never felt very bad in La Paz, but I felt pretty much back to
normal here. We rode a bus to the hotel, and the hotel is amazing! Definitely
the nicest place we have stayed so far. Kristi, Reva, and I are sharing a room,
and we each have our own bed. The bathroom is nice and new, with a big shower.
After we got settled at the hotel we all walked around town.
Today there was a Corpus Christi celebration going on (Catholic festival) so
everyone was at the town square watching the parades of saints. And when I say
everyone, I mean everyone. It was standing room only! It was very cool to
experience though because we were right in the middle of it.
Cusco is definitely more touristy than most cities we have
visited. And we obviously look like tourists, so they know to target us with their
sales. We were walking down one of the side streets and a little girl dressed
in colorful clothing tried to shove a baby alpaca she was holding into my hands
for a picture.
As we were walking around I could see that there were many
people that were not from here, and I could definitely tell when they were
talking because many people spoke fluent English. But this city is cleaner and
less dense than some of the previous ones we have visited.
As with most places, there are markets with souvenirs and
food. One food Cusco has that I haven’t seen anywhere else is fried guinea pig.
I refuse to try it considering I have had many guinea pigs as pets! Ana,
Spodek, Kristi, Zach, and I went to a café towards the end of the afternoon to
rest and grab something to drink, and I did try something new there-a popular
Peruvian drink called Chicha, which is a weird tasting purple/pink juice. I
wasn’t a huge fan. I also tried Inca Kola, which is a yellow soda that tastes
like a dumb dumb sucker or like the syrup you put on a snow cone. It tasted
better than the Chicha!
During our café visit we talked a lot about architecture and
how architects can be very useful in helping developing countries, well,
develop. Since many of the places in South America that we have visited are in
this stage of their growth, it has been eye opening to see. A big problem is
the standard of living that the people here are okay with. We may not see it as
much in the cities, but in the outskirts and smaller towns, it is a big
problem. Living stacked on top of one another without running water or proper
shelter is not okay, but these people don’t have any other choice. A lot of
times people think of architects as the people who design the big fancy
expensive buildings, but we can do so much more than that. Sure we are capable
of doing those kinds of buildings, but that doesn’t mean we have to. We have
been given a lot of knowledge and resources as architects to help fix the
problems in many of these third world and developing countries.
After we got back to the hotel I took a glorious shower with
fabulous water pressure. It was the best shower I have had on this trip. It
felt even better after realizing how privileged I am to have running hot water,
clean clothes, and a nice bed to sleep in at night.
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