Cusco Day 3 - Biting Llamas!

Woke up relatively late again, and slowly made our way through breakfast...well, most of us ate fairly quickly, but the bottomless pit named Dylan started late and ate a ton...he just kept going and going and going. Finally he finished and we went back to the textiles market, bought a few more items, then walked up to what we thought was the inca ruins in the center of town. We had fun walking around these ruins, except for the fact that Dylan and Persie were attacked by an alpaca! This incident has even inspired a series of pictures by Persie about "biting llamas"!

Afterwards, we went to Plaza de Armas and a quick snack (to calm the troops as well as getting some pipes for Alex) and then went to Yuca Mama Grill for lunch (this overlooks the square). As it happens, there was a band that showed up partway through our lunch and they had a couple of pipe players in addition to a guitar, a drum and a yuekelele type instrument. It was a nice accompaniment to our lunch. However, they took FOREVER to make two Pisco sours (they finally arrived after our lunch did). When we were done, we headed back to the room for a nap. After that, we met with Alan, our guide for the next few days in the mountains. He went through the plan for the trip and then we headed out to dinner at a Argentinan Fusion restaurant that was close by.

Unfortunately, they didn't have cuy for dad (they only had one, and the guy before us got it) so he and Dylan had well done steak (ick). We then headed back to the hotel so the kids could go to sleep and mom could pack. Unfortunately, we had to get up at 3:45 and this was the time that Alex and Persie decided to freak out about being homesick. After a lot of calming down, they finally fell asleep. In general, they have been great on this trip, even though it has really pushed their limits in many ways (most obviously, food), but it all came crashing down at this point. Mom and dad got to sleep pretty late as mom had to figure out how to get all our stuff into five small bags provided by Amazonas Explorer. We made it, but the stress was too much for dad...he barely slept at all and started to develop an upset stomach. 3:45 came quickly.