Happy Birthday in Cuzco!

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Arrived in Cuzco bright and early on Suzy's birthday...was greeted with a birthday hug by the owner of the Hostal Resbalosa, where we are staying in Cuzco. Went to a restaurant called Macondo for dinner, which is supposed to be nuevo andino/ jungle cuisine...what can i say, it was ok, the chocolate mousse for dessert was the best part, though!

Relaxed and took in the charms of this beautiful city...smaller than Arequipa, with a few more backpackers, of course. Highlights include the excellent Museo Inca, and the Santa Catalina church, which is now a museum full of religious art...from the Cuzco school.

Also, there being a number of supposedly Irish, English and American pubs/ restaurants, we found ourselves looking for some kind of food that would remind us of home. The food in these places isn't all that exciting, just a Peruvian imitation of said countries cuisine, of course, but at Paddy O'Flaherty's on the Plaza de Armas, Todd had an excellent pizza, with bacon, peppers, salami, the works...and Suzy had some really excellent pumpkin soup...so that's a recommended spot if you wanna have some tasty food, or meet a bunch of drunk gringoes.

In Cuzco, we finally got our acts together and booked the next leg of our trip...so after deciding to take the train to Machu Pichu and be lazy and skip the Inca Trail, we booked a flight to La Paz, leaving December 4.

We left for Machu Pichu very early in the morning, the train leaves at 6:15...Todd had a big grin on the whole ride, definitely enjoyed riding the train along the river, through the mountains, to Machu Pichu! Been itching to take a train ride down here, and this was good fun. The train wasn't too full, so we spread out and relaxed until arriving in Aguas Calientes, where we quickly found a little place to stay, called, Tourist House, so we could remember which one it was! Then we hopped a little bus up to the site of the ruins.

Getting into the ruins is $20 alone, so we were reluctant to shell out another $20 for a guide, which we immediately regretted...this is the kind of place where you want to know everything! Spying a couple of American girls just starting out with their guide, we introduced ourselves and asked if they'd mind sharing the guide...which of course, includes the cost, and they agreed, so we were happy. Whew!

Anyways, Machu Pichu was amazing, our guide was very nice, and we had a good old time chit chatting with one of the american women, although, I guess we never got her name...anyways, she was very nice...

Had some good food in a cozy restaurant with some live folk music and 2 fire places and REALLY good pisco sours.

Next day, we just were lazy in Aguas Calientes, took some photos of the beautiful mountains that surround the place. Before lunch we spent some time at the actual aguas calientes, the hot springs in town...we were mid soak when it started to pour rain, cool water from above and soaking in hot water, it was awesome, especially the view...nothing but jungly mountains shooting up all around us.

After lunch, it was back on the train to Cuzco, so long ruins and tourist house!

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