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We left the Hospedaje Sanbleño and headed down to the Plaza.  En route, we were accosted by a couple kids, who offered to take our picture with an Incan guy for a sol.  It seemed like a good deal, and we got this out of it:
The wall in the background is a famous Incan wall, composed entirely of twelve-sided stones (none alike) that interlock perfectly with one another.  Impossibly durable for something constructed without mortar, this wall -- like its counterparts throughout Peru -- is an example of the remarkable engineering prowess of the Incas (who, unlike our societies today, did not have the benefit of machinery -- rendering these walls an even more impressive feat of craftsmanship).

Our first order of business was to change more of our dollars into soles.  We headed down to the banks on El Sol, only to encounter what were by far the biggest crowds I've ever witnessed at a bank; in one, lines stretched from the tellers to the door, and in another, an enormous waiting room was full of chairs, all occupied by locals waiting for their numbers to be called.  It quickly became clear that Monday was a huge day for business at Peruvian banks; their incredibly condensed hours certainly didn't help much with expediting matters.  Stringing together a few Spanish phrases I knew, I asked a security guard where we should be changing our money; he recommended that we go next door to the little currency conversion booths, which had no lines and offered rates similar to those of the banks.  Given the absurd crowds, any opportunity to avoid a two-hour wait was a good one, so we went next door and, sure enough, were rewarded with no line and a 3.22 sol per dollar exchange rate.  We traded in some dollars, and then we went to Cusco's Office of Tourism to attend to another bit of business: getting our boletos turisticos.  Neither of us had purchased international student ID cards, but as it turned out, there was no need for one; in a long shot, I gave the guy at the counter my old UCLA ID card, and unbelievably, he accepted it (saving me over 50% off the US$20+ ticket price).  I guess it pays off to bring those extra pieces of plastic.

After attending to these logistical matters, it was time to get some food.  We headed over to the Plaza Regocijo -- the Plaza de Armas' smaller, less crowded neighbor --

for lunch at El Truco, a highly rated restaurant facing the square.  To our surprise (and unmentioned in my book), the place offered a buffet -- and what a buffet it was.  Even if I had been writing this at the table, I wouldn't have been able to tell you what half the things we ate were; none of the foods were labeled, and only when a waiter was next to the serving tables did we hear any descriptions (though even the descriptions, being in Spanish, didn't offer much clarification as to what we were getting).  I can tell you one thing, though: the stuff was great, from the chicken soup to the chile relleno to the various meats.  We started off the meal as the only customers, but after about half an hour, a busload of Japanese tourists -- 20 of them, to be exact -- came walking in to partake in the buffet goodness.  After this busload of people got their food, a band showed up to offered us some live entertainment:

The desserts were borderline incredible; from variations of fruit pies, to gelatinous creations whose names I simply do not know, the offerings were just absolute culinary delights.  The food and music was rounded out by very pleasant decor:

The second picture evidently explains the history and meaning of El Truco, but sadly, my Spanish is not good enough for me to understand it.  It looks pretty, though.

After lunch, it was time to check out some of Cusco's architectural wonders.  First, we went to La Catedral, the centerpiece of the Plaza de Armas. 
Admission to the Cathedral formerly was included in the boleto turistico; however, in the time after our guidebooks were published, it had split off and started requiring separate admission tickets, forcing us to reach into our money belts for even more soles.  My UCLA ID again came in handy here, giving me a hefty discount on the combo ticket for the Cathedral, Compaña, and Museum of Religious Art (which we would visit, in that order). 

The Cathedral was a beautiful, elaborate structure, but that grandeur may not seem very apparent here; photography was strictly prohibited inside the building, which meant I had to resort to a lot of pretending-I'm-fumbling-inside-my-bag while snapping photos.  The result was a lot of fuzzy pictures, but they might hint at La Catedral's architectural impressiveness:

The last picture features a black Jesus, which is not the first thing I would have expected to see in South America.  I never really found an explanation, but I did find another at La Compaña -- a second Plaza structure that, like the Cathedral, prohibited photography:

The Compaña's basement offered up this little shrine

which was bordered by a random hole in the floor, which offered a view of someone's dropped sunglasses and a dropped water bottle.  Naturally, none of this was accompanied by any explanation.

In addition to a basement, the Compaña had a second story, which offered up views of both the interior

and the Plaza de Armas outside.
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Our next stop was the Museo de Arte Religioso.  Here, a kindly tour guide did her best to give us English descriptions of all the religious art pieces; while I don't remember a whole lot from those descriptions, I do have these (again illegally taken) photographs to offer:
 

After the Museum of Religious Art, we had a couple more hours till our meeting with the tour guide for our Machu Picchu hike.  We decided to spend it by first paying a visit to the Museo Inka (Incan Museum), which offered up a series of exhibits centered around a very pedestrian-looking courtyard:

The exhibits were haphazardly labeled; the labels that were posted were irregularly translated into English -- with some displays only offering a Spanish description -- and all were clearly just cheap computer printouts.  The museum offered up a variety of Incan artifacts -- including, randomly, the world's largest collection of Incan cups and drinking vessels;

various sculptures and pottery;

tools for hunting and, uh, smoking;

and a strange collection of skulls (I've included the descriptions, in case anyone wants to translate them for me) --

but the highlight, creepily and incontrovertibly, was a room full of "mummies" (more like oddly arranged skeletons):

Hard as it may be to believe, the trip would get even creepier in Lima -- but more on that later.

The rest of the Museo Inka was a little more subdued:

After finishing up the museum, we headed out into the Cusco night.

For dinner, we wanted something quick, and we came up with a very unauthentic choice: Trattoria Adriano, just off the Plaza.  It was full of gringos, but we didn't mind; I ordered the pesto spaghetti (which turned out to be good, but didn't have enough sauce), and Tammy got the "pancakes con helado" (a crepe with chocolate ice cream). 

After dinner, it was just about time for the 8:00 meeting with our tour guide.  We headed over to the agreed-upon meeting spot (a hotel on the Plaza), where we found Elisabeth -- and, oddly, no backpackers.  The only people to show up were the tour guide and a grim-looking fellow who seemed like he was with the travel agency.  The guide seemed nice enough, though his English wasn't very good; together with Elizabeth and the grim guy, he showed us a map of our route and walked us through our itinerary.  The meeting was short -- they gave us suggestions for what to bring, and we were on our way.

We went down El Sol to rent some gear at a shop we'd spotted the previous day; we got sleeping bags, I got a thick jacket for the colder parts of the hike, and Tammy got a hiking backpack and a poncho. 

After getting bottled water, we headed back to Hospedaje Sanbleño and packed our bags for the five-day trek.  We were scheduled to leave at 4:30 AM.  The real adventure was about to begin.

Map of Peru