We spend the day in Cusco. We have breakfast in a small local place and then wander around town. In the morning we take care of some errands, such as changing money at the bank and checking our emails. We look for a place to have lunch - it is tough to find a place that charges reasonable prices. In the end, we are lucky and find a place that has a set menu that is very filling.
After lunch it is time for the touristy things. We first go and visit the cathedral - it is actually three churches that have been connected together. They are a strange mix and the main cathedral has an interesting design. The front area is taken up with a huge semi-enclosed room for the choir - you have to walk around this to get to the pews in front of the altar. There is a lot of renovation going on - presumably fixing earthquake damage.
We check out some of the streets that are still lined with original Inca walls. The Spanish destroyed most of the Inca buildings, but kept some of the original walls in the construction of their buildings. These walls are amazing in how they have been constructed with the huge stones fitting perfectly together.
We wander up to San Blas to check out the church - it is famous for it wooden pulpit. It is reputed to be the best wood carving in the Americas - it is quite impressive. When we left the church we spent some time meandering through the lanes and roads admiring both the original Inca walls and the Spanish colonial buildings.
That evening back at the hotel we get a briefing for the Inca Trail that we will be hiking the day after tomorrow. They tell us what to expect and they make it sound really tough - we shall see. They also give us a purple stuff sack - one for two people. We are to put in here whatever stuff we want the porters to carry. We are going in style.
Some of us go for dinner at Macando - quite a good restaurant up near San Blas. We enjoy it and return to our hotel early to pack our bags for tomorrow.