I wake up early yet again and pack my bags yet again. My flight is at 4 p.m., so I don’t leave for the airport until 1. So I have one final morning to go wander through Cusco and enjoy the parades and have a lunch. My feet are a little battered at this point, so I drop my bags at the hotel and go find myself a nice spot to sit down and watch the morning’s parades. I am out on the town square for the first groups of the day at 8:30. There are barricades up now, so I find a nice spot to sit on the curb…

Photo Walk For my second day in Cusco, I got up early and met with a local photographer to take some artsy shots around the scenic streets of Cusco. We met at my hotel, took a taxi to the San Blas neighborhood, and walked back, taking photos along the way. It was fun, but a bit stiff. He had a translator with him, as he is Italian and now lives in Cusco, so he speaks Italian and Spanish, but not English. The translator was a lady from Argentina I think(?), and she was very helpful, mostly at holding my purse while we took photos. We walked through the narrow streets…

Leaving Lima Today, I leave Lima at 7 a.m. to catch a plane for Cusco.  Now, I have heard from my tour guide yesterday that the Starbucks here makes a lúcuma frappuccino.  However, when I walked past the nearest Starbucks, about a block from my hotel, there is an armed security guard at the door.  Now, either there are so many people out there doing bad stuff that every single store, bank, and restaurant needs armed security, or there are a lot of overly armed security guys out there, and either way, it feels very intimidating and not welcoming to me.  So I was quite relieved to arrive at the…