Restaurants, shops, ho(s)tels and massage parlors are everywhere. Our hostel, Hostel Pakarina, was the only hostel available when we booked it. We were there for only one night so we weren’t too picky. It was nice having a room to ourselves as well.
After coming back from Machu Picchu we decided to check out some of the shops. I bought a beanie that had llamas on it of course. All their beanies seem to be reversible which is pretty cool. We went back to our hostel and decided to go to the big market the next day. On our way to our hostel, we were looking for a possible place to eat for dinner. We ended up picking the restaurant attached to our hostel totally by accident. Convenient for us though. We chilled in the hostel for a bit before heading down for dinner.
Before sitting down, we decided to go ask how much a massage was going to be at the shop across from our hostel. The lady told us it was 50s ($15) and she would throw in the hot stones as well. We told her we wanted to eat first and then come back.
At the restaurant I wanted to try Ceviche which this popular seafood dish. Mine had raw trout. The trout was wayyyy too lemony for me. It was a bit overwhelming. Lu got a quesadilla. Katriz got chicken with green rice.
After dinner we decided to try what a Peruvian massage would be like. Needless to say it was alright. It was Katriz’s first time getting a full body massage and she kept giggling. The girl I had found a knot and worked on it for a bit but then she either gave up on it or got tired because she left it alone after a while. That made me sad because I wanted her to unknot it. She also didn’t apply too much pressure. I like feeling the pressure. Ha! It wasn’t the best massage but it was just nice having Katriz on my left giggling away and Lu on my right trying not to fall asleep. The hot stones were nice. That was the first time I’ve ever had them so that was a bonus.

We got back to the hostel and packed. I was the last to take a shower and halfway thru the hot water completely turned off! I had to quickly rinse the soap off me. I was freezing that I ended up using the sink to wash the conditioner off my hair.

Managed to sleep in til 8am which was really nice. I think all the traveling on buses/trains has taken a toll on us. So a much needed few hours of sleep helped a lot. We would’ve been able to sleep in more had it not been the street noises outside. We checked out of our hostel at 10am because that’s the time we’re supposed to check out. After a few minutes of confusion with the money, we were on our way to find food and an atm machine. We found both.
We found a café/restaurant in the main square where our waiter knew about the first 49 families that went to the gold rush. He was nice and pretty talkative. He thought we knew some Spanish because the Philippines was a colony of Spain. Sadly we only wish we could speak Spanish. I ordered a typical breakfast (which looked and tasted a lot like a lomo saltado) with coffee and papaya juice. Lu got a breakfast sandwich with orange juice and Katriz got a breakfast omelet with tea and papaya juice. After breakfast we were ready to tackle the market!
The market was directly in front of the train station. You couldn’t even see the entrance of the station without having to go through the market. We bought some llama sweaters, shirts and other knickknacks for gifts and souvenirs. We bought stuff for friends and family members. I also got the courage to start haggling. The first time I did the lady and I kept laughing. But she eventually lowered it to what I had asked for.
The 3rd shop we bought a lot from this lady because she was really nice and gave us a big discount. Plus her daughter was super adorable and she kept smiling because I was playing peekaboo with her. At one point the mom had to rush to her storage to get a size or color and she left her daughter on the floor. I felt like we were buddies now so I picked her up and carried her until her mom came back. Her mom was ok with me carrying her so I continued to carry her some more until her mom took her back and a few minutes later put her back down on the floor and gave her some toys to play with. After buying a lot of stuff, we decided to head to the train station and just chill. We had an hour and a half before we would even board.