Irish, Isrealis and Incas

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The hostel is at the top of an impressive hill and its only when we venture into the bar we truely appreciate the amazing view this hostel offers, an uniterrupted panoramic view of the entire town and mountains stretching into the background.

We enter our dorm room to the sounds of several Irish people playing and singing Lady in Red, these seem to be veterens of the hostel and we soon learn that they have a very strict cycle of drinking all night and sleeping most the day, then repeat for atleast a week.

As we stroll down the steep hill to town it becomes clear that Cusco lives up to its reputation of being a charming and beautiful place, even the street urchins seem quite reserved although there seem to be an increasing amount of street sellers who are small boys dressed as men, equally confusing as entertaining. Photos coming soon Shaun.

After the eventful bus journey and altitude have some tiring effects we decide to call it a day and have a rest before the nights fun begins. The night venues all offer free drinks so its easy to enjoy the delights of Mamma Africas, Mamma Amerikas and Up Town for virtually nothing. The former venues however can most politely be described as where locals and travellers can meet, the locals are big fans of western travellers, needless to say we didnt return to this haunt again and stuck to Up Town which played some classic rock and also films in the day.

The next few days are spent meandering around the cobbled streets avoiding the toy like taxis and persistent although very entertaining street venders, mainly selling finger puppets of various animals. We still have no idea where this industry started but the look on their faces when you decline their offer is like you have turned down the oppurtunity to time travel or something.

The altitude only really comes into play when we return to the hostel up a very steep stepped hill, its not the usual tiredness and you only really notice when you feel your heart beating at a happy hardcore rate (very fast), this seems to have got better over the passed few day but the Inca Trail on Tuesday will be the real test.

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Comments

[LINZICA]

sounds great
Sounds like you are having a fantastic time. Que bueno! I am heading to Peru in July, any tips?~ take care, Jenica

[Alex Champ]

Continue to have a smashing time young travellers, very envious. Keep up the joe blog, 'A good read': Alex Champ 2006 Cant believe you turned down the finger puppets though, what the hell was wrong with them? xxx