At 8:00 the Mayuc Expeditions "bus" stops at the hostel to pick me up. There are no buses as we know them here, they are mostly just large vans. It's about and hour and a half ride to Mayuc's base camp where we get outfitted with wet suits, water jackets, helmets and life vests. The other rafters are 2 girls from Belgium, a guy from Mexico with his girlfriend from Kansas, and another guy from Switzerland.
Once outfitted, we load the bus with our raft, paddles, and a kayak for the second guide and head upriver for half an hour. At the put in point we get 20 minutes of rafting and safety education then hop in the raft and we're off. The second guide ran point in an inflatable kayak to scoop up anybody who might fall into the river, and also got some good pictures along the way.
We stop at a spot where you can jump off a rock into the river. It seems higher when you're standing up there. The water is really cold, even with the wetsuit.
The rapids were pretty good, although I'm not sure about the class III+ rating on some of them. Probably no bigger than the Wolf River, but they were longer and closer together. In 3 hours we didn't have to paddle longer than 5 minutes at a stretch.
When we reach the base camp we strip off our wetsuits and jump into a wood fired sauna. The heat feels great after a few hours on the river.
Then we have lunch: pumpkin soup and Andean bread followed by chicken with rice and cucumbers.
To finish off the trip we ride back and forth across the river on a couple of zip lines. It starts on a 30 foot platform on one side, which is a little interesting as you are not hanging off the pulley at first, the line is about chest height. You have to jump off the platform toward the river then the pulley catches and you zip across.
Then back on the bus for the trip to Cusco. The Belgian girls fill us in on the superiority of Belgian chocolate vs. Swiss chocolate, Belgian french fries (a special double frying process), and Belgian beer. They say that Stella Artois is the Budweiser of Belgium and that we should immediately go out and get some Trappist monk beer. Not much chance of finding any in Cusco though.
The bus drops me off at Recoleta around 5 and I head out for the Plaza de Armas to look for some dinner.
This girl was one of the best salesman on the square. She couldn't have been older than 6 or 7 but she had her pitch down pat. I turned down the Quechua dolls but did buy some finger puppets. After bargaining her down to 5 soles for 3 puppets plus a picture, she insisted I take another picture then said "Aha, that will be 3 more soles for 2 pictures!"
Jack's Cafe in San Blas. This seems to be in everybody's top 3 list of Cusco restaurants.
Grilled salami and cheese with caramelized onions and mushrooms and a cold large Cusquena. Not really Peruvian (except the Cusquena) but very good. This is how it comes, a sandwich and a half.
The dog is always there right in that spot, day or night
Heading down through San Blas to Plaza de Armas
Plaza de Armas at night
Plaza de Armas at night
All in all a pretty good 50th birthday.
