My Cuzco home and family

Cocal tea!  One of my biggest fears of going to Cuzco with its 11,500 foot high altitude was getting sick.  Manuel picked me up at the airport and brought me to their house.  Betty, his wife, had a glass of coca tea waiting for me.  I no sooner  had drank my tea, and Betty showed me to my room where she told me, I was to get under the covers and rest for an hour and a half.  How did it taste?  Kinda like green tea.

After a delightful breakfast of fresh juice (all local fruit I did not know), chicken salad sandwiches and strong coffee, Betty .... My Cuzco house mom for the next two months, took me on a walking tour of the old El Centro.  The old Spanish Catholic Catheral is directly behind the two of us.

The old cathedral, with its beautiful gardens directly in front, is quite a building to behold!

Manuel, age 77 and his wife Betty, age 72, have a small house on a narrow street that has equally small houses on each side.  Betty and Manuel's  house is the first one on the left side.  My room is on the second floor with the open window. And a bed with lots of heavy blankets, since the temperature at night drops down into the low 30s.