Last Night in Cusco
Your taxi drops you off at the hotel for your last night in Cusco just after dark. This time you are staying right next to Plaza de Armas. Although you are exhausted from your morning at Machu Picchu and the long journey back, you head out for one last chance to see the city at night.
Outside your hotel you spot the green awning you noticed on your last visit, still keeping rocks off people’s heads. You also think the place looks very much like an Italian restaurant, but its not. You could use an Italian restaurant right now. A small stone tumbles off the roof on your side of the street and strikes the pavement just beside you, waking you from your daydream and sending you on your way.
At the corner of the plaza a lady with alpacas is crossing the street, and you catch her in a few photos, although she is really not your subject. She rushes through the crosswalk and approaches as you give her the five soles you had always intended. You smile, pet the alpaca on its head then continue on toward the plaza.
Plaza de Armas is striking at night, with the golden glow of its street lights and the hills sprinkled with gold and blue spots all around. At one corner on a hill stands Cristo Blanco, a 20 foot tall statue of Jesus glowing and appearing to float above the plaza. The plaza is surprisingly busy for a late Sunday evening, people and cars of Cusco zipping in all directions.
As you begin to cross the south side of the plaza, you notice again how clean and shiny everything is. It may have rained earlier, but you are not sure. You learned that this area of Cusco is under the protection of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention, and as such is taken very good care of. There are people cleaning the streets and emptying the trash cans even now.
You reach the west side of the plaza and wait for a break in the traffic to cross. You suddenly remember the KFC you saw a few days ago on the opposite corner of the plaza. Its way past dinner time, but first you decide to look around to see if there is something more local to try.
This is a long stretch of shops and restaurants where you hope to find something to eat, but nothing is catching your eye. There are several money exchanges on this stretch and you remember you need a little more cash for the next day, so you step up to one and ask if you can exchange only twenty of your last fifty dollar bill, in Spanish. It wasn’t a conscious decision, you don’t really even speak Spanish, but you had a lot of it in school a long time ago, and you have been immersed in it all week. Proud of yourself, you vow to try to usa as much Spanish as possible for the rest of your time in Peru.
You find nothing to eat on this stretch and continue on northward on a street you had not visited last time you were here. It looks promising, fancy lights and lots of activity. There are some interesting characters on this street. One man in a cowboy hat with a vest-full of colorful pins is leaning on a lightpost and appears to badly need its support. There are many bars on this stretch, and a few restaurants but nothing looks appealing.
On one side you look down a corridor at signs offering buth sushi and massages. You wonder in which order that combination would work best. Or is it at the same time? You don’t even like sushi. This isn’t the only place offering massages on this street, along with all the bars. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it’s not what you need right now. You turn back toward the plaza and head for that KFC.
KFC is delicious, and you have the spicy local version of a chicken sandwich so you don’t feel completely like a lame tourist. After the meal you sit for a while on a bench in the middle of the plaza taking in the scene. There are still quite a few people out, including several approaching and offering souvenirs and artwork for sale.
You remember one thing left to do, you need to buy a souvenir. The street you saw your last time here is just across the plaza, Calle Triunfo. That is where all the souvenir shops are. So you walk across the plaza and head up the hill into the crowd. At night this pedestrian avenue looks even more hectic with its neon lights and brightly lit shops. After peeking into several shops, you find a small carving of an Incan sacrificial knife and think that will look good on your wall. Mission accomplished, you continue on toward San Blas.
Your wandering has taken you back to the first hotel you stayed at in Cusco. The streets are almost empty, the sky is clear and all around the city the lights in the hills continue to twinkle. You make your way around the corner, down the hill on a narrow sidewalk, past the puma fountain then spot the familiar green awning that marks your destination. What a beautiful city you think before heading upstairs and immediately falling asleep.
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