Visit the San Blas Church this morning, a small adobe church up on a hillside in Cuzco. It is famous for its baroque gold-leafed alter and the exquisite carve work of the pulpit. It is indeed very impressive. I pay for my student ticket, just slightly more than US$2. I get inside, someone already hand me a headset with a self guide tour. The church is really small, it cannot hold more than 150 people. According to the guide, it suffered from two earthquakes, a lot of the original art works on the wall were destroyed, but there are also some leftover for visitors to see. I am glad that I have the self-guide tour, it gives me more insight about what I am looking at. I wish I did that in the Cathedral I visited last weekend as well, but I forgot to ask for it. Oh well. Anyway, the highlight of the San Blas church is really the pulpit, the carvemenship is unbelievable. The gold-leaf alter is almost out of place in this small church. But it is also one of the major attractions of this church. According to the guide, even the Pope (in the 16 century) came all the way to Cuzco to visit San Blas Church and was impressed by it. Among all the churches and museums I have visited in Cuzco, San Blas Church is up there among the Top 3 recommendations I would give to people.
After the church, I visit a tour agent on the main Plaza and join a local tour for tomorrow to visit a few remote ruins and towns, namely Tipon, Pikillacta and Andahuaylillas, they are about an hour away. The tour costs 45 soles, or US$15, for 5-6 hours, from 8:30am - 3:00pm or 3:30pm. Not too bad I guess. But I will probably have to go to school late, and I have to have a quick bite at McDonalds or somewhere near the school after the tour, since it does not cover lunch. Though when I sign up for the tour, there are only 2 people, who knows, maybe the guide will end up bringing up to try another local dish - the roasted guinea pig - which is famous in Tipon. That sounds really interesting. I have already inquired the name: Chicharrones, from the locals. Let's see if I will have a chance to try it.
Today's Spanish class has been good. We have touched on some future tenses. Tomorrow one of the professors is taking us to a local market to see some local foods. Every Friday, it seems to be the culture of this school to have some group activities. I may be still on my way back from the tour so I don't know if I will make it. Anyway, we'll see.
After school, I have a briefing for my Machu Picchu trip with the guide. He seems to be very friendly, but oh man, he needs to brush his teeth or some listenines will do him good. His mouth stinks! Now I get a much clearer idea what we'll be doing. I know I will be hiking with 2 Dutch students and the guide. Total of 4 persons. We will depart at 6:30am, take a bus and train (3 hours) to get to the Inka Trail where marked KM. 104. We will start hiking from there to the first mountain called Wiñay Wayna for about 3 hours or so, we will have lunch there, then hike for another hours to the Sun Gate where we will have our first view of the Machu Picchu, then we will hike for another hour to the entrance of Machu Picchu, but we will not be going into the Machu Picchu on the first day, instead we will take a bus back down to the town where we will stay overnight, wash up, have dinner. As a group, we will decide whether we will like to get up at 3am in the morning, to hike up to the Wayne Picchu (the famous opposite side of Machu Picchu), that may take maybe an hour or so, but since a lot of people are going to do that, we would need to get up early enough to get the tickets or something. I am totally up for it, but since I am in a group, I will have to see whether my partners want to do it. Other than that, we will have a 2 and half hour guide tour inside Machu Picchu on the second day, and a couple more hours to look around inside on our own till 3:00pm or 4:00pm before we will leave. Lunch and dinner are included on the first day but not the second day, so I need to bring some crackers and cheese or something to feed my tummy up on Machu Picchu. Except a few very steep parts in the beginning and at the end, the rest of hike are quite gentle, according to the guide. I ask whether I can bring a walking stick. The guide (gosh, I forgot his name already) offers to bring me one. So, guess I should pay him some tips or something. Overall, sounds like there will be a 5-6 hours hike on the first day, and the second day will be 1-2 hours and lots of walking around inside Machu Picchu. I am totally excited about it though.
Of course, when the guide see my last name, the whole Jackie Chan and Kung Fu deal comes up to the topic again. It seems that they really think every Chinese man practice Kung Fu at home. Seriously, they totally dig into that idea. After the guide and I done with the briefing, we head back to the travel agent office, the tour manager asks me if I am vegetarian, I say No and I give him one more: Hey come on, I am Chinese, we eat anything that moves! The local people seems to enjoy that joke. No harm done. We all laugh, all good.
