We got here really late and thank goodness we had a room prebooked. At 2 in the morning all one needs is a bed.  We got up in time for the hotel breakfast…scrambled eggs and uber white bread buns with jam and horrible coffee.  Phil may not cooperate like Charles did in Central America… she may give up on coffee too instead of becoming my official tester.  I told charles to let me know when a cup of coffee worth drinking came along and I had one a week or so later.  He drank a lot of swill between times. I love coffee too much for that.

We took a taxi to plaza mayor and started wandering. Fabulous old Spanish architecture all round the downtown. I am a sucker for all that painted plaster. We went into the train station/library first

then the monastery of San Francisco 

At this point we were uncertain as to how to proceed so we spent too much on a map from a hawker in the plaza mayor, but this led us to the municipal tourist info place.  From there we went round the corner to the museum of gastronomia

…and next door to my favourite of the day another monastery … Santo Domingo with a beautiful cloister

a cool old library

and a bell tower 

With lovely panoramic views

We went back down to the street and immediately caught a bus to Cerro San Cristobal, a very large hill with more panoramic views…this time of a way too big and not very green, smoggy city

We came down, bought bus tickets to Cuzco and went for supper.  We did not understand much on the menu

But the tacu tacu was good and the ordering with my very limited Spanish and the waiter’s non existent English was an adventure in mine and gesture.