Cuzco

"Your emperor may be a great prince; I do not doubt it, seeing that he has sent his subjects so far across the waters; and I am willing to treat him as a brother. As for your pope of whom you speak, he must be mad to speak of giving away countries that do not belong to him. As for my faith, I will not change it. Your own God, as you tell me, was put to death by the very men he created. But my God still looks down on His children."
~Atahualpa, Inca Chief (On hearing Pope Alexander VI had declared Peru to be a possession of Spain.)

I arrived to the ancient Inca capital early on the morning of the Jewish new year´s eve. It was after my third night without proper sleep and at 6:00am the city haven`t properly woke up yet. As I wandered in the impressive Plaza de Armes waiting for the hostels to open their doors I was approached by an Hebrew speaking man who tried to convince me to try his hotel. I kindly refused but the Hebrew the man spoke was a clear sign on how big and influential is the Israeli tourist movment around the town, soon after when I started to see the signs in Hebrew and the Israeli flags I started to understand why they call Cuzco "The Israeli capital of South America". Since it was new year´s eve the city was packed with more Israelis than usual who came to spend the holidays in the city so finding a decent hostel proved to be a difficult task. After more than half a day I settled for a bad room with a very good shower and decided to find a better place as soon as I´ll find the time. All the wondering around got me a good understanding of the area around the central plaza where I will spend most of my time.After a decent dinner I decided to skip the traditional new year´s meal and catch a badly needed sleep instead. I slept for 14 hours through all the noise of people coming and going from the different parties.

In the next morning I moved to a better room at the same hotel and start talking with the other tenants. Almost immediately I found out that Cuzco is not Huaraz. Where in Huaraz people were always on a trek, organizing for one or out for one day activities - in Cuzco it seem that most people were content with just hanging around the city. Since the Cuzco area has so much to offer I found this a little bit surprising but after a while I realized that it just that since Huaraz biggest attraction was the treks people came there to trek while in Cuzco I met the rest of the Israeli crowd, many of whom were interested only in clubbing, cheap dining and perhaps some thrills that didn´t required too much hard work. The trekking crowd was here as well - it was just a minority. The lazy environment and the fact that the end of the season was fast approaching worried me a little at first as I didn´t want to get stuck - but all well that ends well and I found a good group to hang around with and got to enjoy the city and rest a little more than I got to up to this point - which was a good thing since I needed the rest after a very hectic month.

In the end I found that Cuzco is a great town. while not as comfortable as Huaraz, it has a lot more to offer between activities such as Salsa clubs (I even participated in a Salsa lesson), Museums and big markets all easily and readily accessible. I found two great places for breakfast or a light lunch - which were very useful since I often woke up late and hungry, at least 3-4 good restaurants for dinner and a good deal on Ice cream at the local McDonald's.. I also got to enjoy a variety of advantures outside the city from snowy mountains to jungles and lost Inca cities and one memorable afternoon on a hill at the outskirts...