Sunday, May 19, 2024
Today we got up at about 6:30, showered, sorted some of our things (take hiking or leave behind in our suitcase), and went down to breakfast. Nathan had the omelet this morning, and I stuck with the pancakes, supplemented with fruit, coffee, yogurt, granola and coca tea.
After breakfast we did a little laundry, got a backpack ready for a day of sightseeing, and waited for Franklin, from Wayki Trek, to stop by and give us our hike briefing. He arrived a little early, and we sat in the hotel restaurant and discussed our upcoming Lares Trek.
Once Franklin left, we set off for the Museum & Catacombs of the Convent de San Francisco. As we were leaving our hotel, we noticed a little market right on the corner, and made a mental note to come back before dinner to get a large bottle of water to fill our Camelbaks.
We also stopped by an ATM to pull out enough soles for tipping and small, local markets we encounter on our hike. As is usual on our adventures, small bills are king, yet the ATMs only dispense 100 and 200 sole bills. Breaking those bills into smaller ones will be yet another task for today.
The walk to Plaza San Fransisco was short, yet chaotic. There are easily a thousand people out near the main square, both milling about and there for parades and festivities. We stuck together, and made it to the Plaza, after taking a small detour to shop the various stalls of tourist trinkets, sweaters, hats, gloves, socks and alpaca goods. The last vendor managed to pique our interest and we bought a few items for ourselves and a small gift for the neighbor girl who’s watering our garden.
I had been afraid that most things we’d want to do today would be closed, it being Sunday and all, but the museum was open. For the nominal price of 15 soles each, or about $4, we were able to see the paintings, catacombs and library.
Sadly, they didn’t allow photos, but they did send us with a pamphlet in English that explained each room and the paintings. There were three small crypts with bones in them laid out in a decorative display.
After the museum, we walked to the San Pedro market to check out the vendor stalls, decided we weren’t feeling quite that adventurous to eat there a day before our hike, and left the market to find food.
We looked at quite a few menus, before settling on a restaurant overlooking the Plaza de Armas. We managed to sit right at the open window overlooking the plaza. The food was very good, and we enjoyed our seat overlooking al the activity on the plaza.
It was 3 pm by the time we were done with lunch, and we still had the arduous task of changing numerous 200 sole bills into smaller ones. Since its Sunday, banks are closed. Our next best idea was to go to the nearest grocery store, of which we have not seen any, and buy a trivial snack or drink to get change. On a hunch, I suggested to Nathan that we walk into a money exchange place and see if they would break the bills. So, money exchange place after money exchange, we broke 200s into 100s and 100s into 50s. We must have gone into 10 of these money exchanges before we had broken all of the 200 and 100 sole bills down. It took hardly any time as door after door along the plaza and adjacent streets are combo money exchange and tour operators.
Crisis averted. We celebrated by buying an ice cream cone and breaking yet another 100 down to smaller bills. There was still plenty of daylight left, so we decided to run to the market and get a jug of water to fill our Camelbaks. We trudged all the way up to our street, and wouldn’t you know that market was closed already? We were almost back to our hotel, and Nathan needed to use the facilities, so I walked back down towards the plaza to find a market and buy the water. 14 soles for 7 liters, and now I was the one carrying the jug of water up the hill.
Back at our room, we filled the Camelbaks and our water bottles and I double checked that the big main Cathedral was open. It was, so we decided to squeeze in one more sight into our day. The main Cathedral is a huge building right on Plaza de Armas. We bought our tickets (40 soles each!) and were quickly approached by a local guide. Did we want a tour guide? 20 soles each.
Having walked though countless churches and museums without a guide and with fairly limited in some cases English translations, we said sure. A pretty reluctant sure from me, but in the end, I was glad we did it. The highlight for me was seeing the Last Supper painting depicting Jesus and his disciples eating cuy (guinea pig) and drinking the local corn beverage. Since the Spanish enlisted the local Incan artisans to paint or carve the artworks in the church, there is a lot of crossover between Incan imagery and Catholic iconography.
Again, no photos were allowed, but the guide had Nathan sneak one of a silver urn containing half of the ashes of a famous Incan man whose mother was an Inca princess and his father was Spanish. The other half of his cremains are in Spain somewhere.
After the tour, we hustled back to our hotel to have a light dinner and prepare for tomorrow. Also having dinner in the hotel restaurant was a young couple from Geneva who is on a six month holiday and touring the world. We enjoyed talking with them, but needed to pull ourselves away so we coud get everything ready for the day. Tomorrow is an early start. Franklin comes to get us at 6 am.