I just arrived at Niños Hotel in a restored colonial building three blocks from the Plaza de Armas. My taxi driver and I spoke Quechua all the way here (me haltingly) and when I told him I would spend the month in Paucartambo he said “Oh, you’ll be really talking a month from now.” I was excited to be able to answer him in sentences this time; previously I have understood and nodded.

Getting to Cusco is a strange experience because there are literally hundreds and hundreds of people from all over the world headed here with the express interest of seeing Macchu Picchu. Those who live here sometimes feel like wallpaper. Actually, I think there are probably about 4,000 people a day that enter the sanctuary of Macchu Picchu, unless they have started to limit it more than in 2008.

I need a nap.

At 6 I am going to an indigenous ceremony on the lawn of what was the main Inca temple, the Quricancha.