Nighmare bus ride to Cusco,

We caught a bus to Cusco (3326m) leaving Arequipa at 9.30 pm. The bus ride turned into the worst so far. It was fairly comfortable seating but they had the heating so hot we - Paul and I had to strip off as much as was decent. There was no-way you could sleep, it was at least 40 degrees. My water bottle that was on the floor, by the heater could have made a cup of tea. We had watermelon that turned sour and cooked. We had to touch the window to get any cooling. These buses are sealed, no windows that open. The local people had hats and fleeces on.

I had booked a Hostel that was a bit more expensive than we usually get and we got a taxi from the bus station. It took us to this place that had Bell Boys and in we walked with our packs and Paul saying, I don't think they will let us stay here. It was so posh! We felt a bit ill thinking, how much it was going to cost and then we found that we had been dropped off at the wrong place. It had a name almost the same as our hostel so another taxi dropped us off at the end of this narrow street that could only have walking traffic and we found our hostel. It was a four hundred year old place, with lovely archways, a central courtyard, marble staircases and low doorways that Paul had some trouble with. We immediately went to bed and slept half the day away. We were woken by drums and loud speakers.

We went down to find out what was going on and the military were having marching displays around the Plaza de Armas, apparently a regular occurance. Every armed force dept had a section on display.

We were besieged by street hawkers, shoe shine boys and beggars. We've never seen so many deaf people all asking for money. We were going to clap loudly behind the next one to come up and check if they were deaf. They have a bit of paper saying they are deaf. The hole city was geared to rip the tourist off, big time. Ladies were trying to sell hats at other junk and if you did not buy it they became bolshie and wanted to know why, what was wrong with it? Paul was telling them to piss of in the end. Paul was followed by a shoe shine boy for 2 hours until he gave in and got his boots done again for 2 sols. (75cents). We were resting in this plaza and you could see the touts scanning for tourists and when they saw one they came one after the other all selling the same stuff that you did not want many times already. This continued all the time we were in Cusco. We hated it and it eventually drove us out of town. In fact, if we wern't so exhausted from the bus trip we would have gone that first day.

We did a bus trip around town the next day and this took up to a Basilica Cathedral. This Church was built over the ruins of an Inca Temple in the late 1500's and took 90 years to build. It is very ornate and has so much gold two and a half tonnes, and silver 220 tonnes plus lots of paintings, beautiful carved things, that would have weighed many tones. And there were plenty of them.
The bus then took us to the Convento de Santo Domingo Del Cusco, this also had Inca ruins inside it. It seems the Spanish tried to build over anything Inca. We saw stones fitting perfectly with up to 16 corners that you could see. Then off to Sacsayhuaman, more Inca stone work that had stones weighing more than 120 tonnes, This was at 3500 meters and both Paul and I were feeling the effects of altitude, ie breathless, weak. Back on the bus to an Inca water temple at 3850 meters. We had to walk up and up and when we felt we could not go any further, there were people around the corner selling their stuff again. You had no breath to say no and just had to ignore them. They never got the message. At this temple, water comes out of the ground all year and has never dried up since the Inca built, it seems strange that springs come out of the ground at nearly 12,000 feet.
We were taken down for a cup of coca tea at a llama wool factory and shop. We were shown the difference betweem the real thing and what the touts were selling in town.
Back to our Hostel exhausted.

The next day we went by bus, train and bus again to Machu Picchu. This was a marvel to see but still a huge tourist rip off. there were very many people there and it was so hot. It covers a huge area and has amazing terraces, buildings, gaurd houses and one of the few places the Spanish never found. Sitting at Machu Picchu we decided to leave Cusco for Lima the next day.

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