The first few days in Cuzco have been quite busy. While I am still huffing and puffing climbing stairs in this city, it gets better with each day. The historical part of the city (where I and almost all tourists are staying) is pretty much constructed with bricks and stones from ancient times.  As a result, stairs are not built to a standard code and most seem to be between one and one and a half times that of stairs in the US. So not only am I dealing with the high altitude and thin air, but I am getting the Stairmaster workout too.

this isn´t an example of the steep stairs, but it is an example of the steepness

The first few days were spent just getting acclimated to the air and also the layout of the ´hood. Many of the roads are thin, with thinner sidewalks and most are one way. It´s been five days now and I feel like I´ve good handle on where things are, but will still make a turn that I didn´t want to do and have to backtrack. 

Yesterday I finally jumped on the bike and left the city to see four different Incan ruins just outside of Cusco. I only made it to one - Saqsayhuaman, pronounced ´Sexy woman´. Perhaps it was because I didn´t have any perspective of where I was going, but probably it was because of my lack of any long-distance biking since many months ago, but I was feeling the crunch of not being in any biking shape and just had to stop at the first ruins.  Embarassingly enough, this is only 3 kilometers of a ride from where I am staying. 

The ruins are just that - ruins.  I heard some historical perspective from a local guide for another group, but really, it´s just a buncha rocks that were left behind by Pizarro.  He and his group of marauders took the smaller stones for housing down to the city of Cuzco. 

It took me maybe 30 minutes to walk around the whole area and it started to sprinkle off and on, so I pressed on. I had intentions of continuing to the next area of ruins, but took a wrong turn and ended up heading back to Cuzco. Maybe I can blame the altitude and thin air for poor decision-making and subconsciously wanted to just head back.

Turns out that it was a great move.  Within half an hour of being in my hostel room, the rains came down hard, along with thunder - I love thunder!  Living in SF, I would never hear thunder.

Today, I had the resolve to do what I didn´t do yesterday - go the eight kilometers to the other three sites. I woke up early (well, 9:15 am) and had a big breakfast: English-style with snausage, bacon, eggs, beans and potatoes with a cup of coffee and mango lassi (I think an Englishwoman owns this place... she also has a bar called Paddy´s Bar). 

Carbed up, I got on the bike and was impressed at how much improved I was compared to yesterday. Just as I left Cusco, I passed a family with kids that set out to do the same thing I was going to do. After some small talk, I motored past them, thinking that they will eventually catch up to me, if yesterday was any indication.

I made it past the Sexy Woman without any stops and felt really good. So much so, that I think I turned a corner about being a wuss about biking in high altitudes. In fact, I made it to the furthest site in less than an hour... OK, just 9 kilometers, but to an altitude of 12,420 feet that was pretty much 90% climbing.  

Once again, the ruins are just ruins... just a buncha big rocks that nobody wanted to move by hand and horse many centuries ago. 

My return back to Cusco was rewarding after all that climbing - quick descents downhill.  The only problem was that I would catch up to a giant bus that would bellow out black smoke out of the exhaust.  Any time I would try to pass is when an oncoming car would pass or else there was a hairpin turn that prevented me to make a move.  Instead I would have to drift back to let it get some distance and continue my descent at a high velocity.

Night is descending and this city is gearing up for Easter weekend.  Many shops are closed and all the churches are packed.  On top of that, the police, fire dpartment, military and SUAT teams are ready for anything!