Cusco

            First order of business today was to get a replacement immigration card for Steven as he lost his.  This is not an easy process.  First you must go to the Immigration Office and fill out some paperwork and show your passport.  The Immigration Officer then gives you a receipt, which you take to the Peru National Bank and pay a fee of $14PEN, which is about $5USD.  After getting your receipt of payment, you must then obtain photocopies of your passport.  You need the photo page and you also need the page with the entry stamp from Peru.  Once you have managed to complete all of that, you now head back to the Immigration Office and you are ready to get a new card issued.  This entire process took us until about 10am. 

            Now we began the fun part of exploring the historic downtown area of Cusco.  We found our way to the Plaza de Armas and purchased tickets for the Bus Panoramicos.  They have 3 different colored buses - yellow, red and blue.  We ended up on a yellow one.  At first we were somewhat disappointed that we had selected this company because we went around the block 4 times before we actually began the tour.  I had a feeling it was because traffic was horrible, there was no place to park and the bus wasn’t full.  We laughed each time we went around jokingly saying we hoped that enough folks boarded so we could actually get started. 

            The bus was a 2 story-London style-bus.  Closed seating in the bottom section and open-air seating in the top.  The tour lasts somewhere between 1.5 - 2 hours and included the only 2 things I had on my list of potential places to visit.  First was Sacsayhuaman Ruins (pronounced Sexy Woman).  A citadel located on the northern outskirts of the city, sections of which were built by the Killke culture around 1100.  

            Second was the Mini Christ the Redeemer.  Constructed between 1923 and 1931, it is a towering miniature art deco statue of the “Christ The Redeemer” which is located in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  Made from reinforced concrete and soapstone, it measures 98 feet tall, not included the 28 ft high pedestal with arms that stretch 98ft wide.  

            The weather changes quickly so we found ourselves hot one minute and looking for our coats the next.   At the end of our tour we were dropped back at the Plaza de Armas and decided that lunch was in order.  We located a wonderful spot – El Cuadro Restaurant – and had a late lunch.  Mike and I walked back down the hill to our hotel while Steven and  Tamie continued exploring the old historic portion of Cusco.  We met for dinner at 6:00pm at Valentina Restauarant.  It was directly across the street from our hotel.  We all opted for pizza this time and it was a great choice.  It was then back to the hotel for packing and getting ready for our train departure the next morning.  It would be a 10-hour train trip to Puno, located on the southwestern part of Lake Titicaca.