Blogs from Cusco, Cusco, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 16

We headed off on a hike up hill out of Cusco the next morning following Max on the trail of a Sexy Woman or so it sounded like every time he mentioned where we were going! The guys were walking pretty fast strangely enough, can't think why when they were surrounded by sexy women already pfffft! Of course it wasn't Sexy Woman but Saqsay Waman (or 'stuffed full eagle' according to Max!). And so began a day of Max spouting off at great length about his favourite subject the Incas. I guess he is proud of his heritage, but it was really way, way, way, too long a spiel each time. I'm afraid I switched off after a bit. The site itself is however very impressive. It was a fortified garrison type place and you can ... read more

First on the list in Cuzco was shopping, which I haven’t done for 5 months!! There are so many different things to buy and at bargain prices, and seeing as we’re coming to the end of the trip I decided to treat myself and bought a big backpack so I could fill it with loads of new goodies, which I’ve already done ☺ My favourite find was a super soft baby alpaca fur cushion for £5. And I was assured the alpaca is shaved for the fur, rather than killed… Then we went white water rafting, although the water was far from white. And it was ice cold. It was so much fun though, spending 2 hours paddling furiously down the river through grade 3 and 4 rapids waiting for the guide to shout for you ... read more

Yesterday after visiting Tipon, our friend Marilen was having coffee with a fellow student and they struck up a conversation with some Canadians. seh said that she had just spent the day with us, but couldn´t remember exactly where we are from. So she drew a crude map of Canada on a napkin and pointed where we had shown her we lived, and sure enough, the Canadians, said "They must be from Thompson". Nice. Today is our last in Cuzco before relocating to Puno and lake Titicaca tomorrow. It was raining in the morning, and looked like it would continue all day, so we were sure that our host wouldn´t be doing laundry. (She normally does laundry for guests for 4 soles per kilo, but she doesn´t have a dryer). So after a leisurely morning, we ... read more

Ugh! I just sat in this dirty little internet cafe for 45 minutes writing a chatty blog entry and when I got to the form for adding photos, all the text was lost! This blog machine has always been a bit clunky, but that´s a first. I´ll try to cover some of the hilights of the stuff I lost, but am not going to linger over it. The actual photo uploading part takes a lot of time, and Pauline is going to worry if I´m not back soon. The neighbourhood we´re in is decidedly gritty, but we´re enjoying walking around it. We seem to be in an area will all of the auto parts stores. Like nothing you´ve seen in North America. One store 12 feet wide selling batteries, the next selling shocks, and on and ... read more

Hola amigos The 13 hour bus trip to Cusco from La Paz was well worth it. Cusco is fabulous. Again we are booked into the Loki Hostel here (there are 4 Loki Hostels in SA) and we are aiming for 3. We have another nice little matrimonial suite for 2 nights which is lovely. Arrived about 9pm last night and had a quick meal followed by an early night. La Paz was quite intense so it was a VERY well deserved early night. Today we have supported the Peruvian economy for probably the next decade in preparation for the Inca Trek which we start in the morning. We´ve got woolies coming out of our ears. From beanies, to socks, bed socks, wooly jumpers, North Face wind and waterproof jackets, cargo pants, thermals, mossie repellant. Its going ... read more