Thank Paccha Mama for Coca Tea!!!

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Our awakening to Peru was quite rude with a 24 hour journey with no sleep, an inevitable bag lossage and an altitude increase of more than 3,000 metres! We retired to our cosy hostel room in the great LOKI hostel to sleep off the altitude sickness and await the arrival of our luggage. The hostel was a great sanctuary as they do scrummy comfort food like cheese and onion toasties and cheap home cooked evening meals every night meaning you don't have to leave for days on end and loads of travellers here do just that!

Once we managed to haul ourselves into Cuzco town it was all worth it. Despite being a bit touristy and having tons of street sellers pestering unsuspecting 'gringos' like ourselves, it has a quaint feel and is one of the best places for what commonly became known as 'mooching around'. We spent many days wandering round shops, cafes, bars, etc and taking it all in. This time gave us plenty of opportunity to guzzle coca tea - a local remedy for altitude sickness made from dried leaves of the coca plant. This is the principle ingredient of cocaine but before the parents panic you need all sorts of wierd stuff like ether, gasoline and probably a chemistry degree to turn it into the real stuff! We, of course, also had plenty of time to buy the required but ridiculous Peruvian alpaca hats, gloves and woolly jumpers!

The night life in Cuzco is pretty crazy too. Most people in our hotel went partying until the early hours in great sounding places every night. Unfortunately we were usually too ill or knackered to take part (very frustrating!). We did find the time to frequent, what became our local, the Cross Keyes (I know very Peruvian!!) which is homely and cheap.

We topped off our mooching days with a Sunday afternoon pub crawl followed by roast dinner at the hostel - just like Mums make ... mmmm.

Then it was time for some serious Inca enlilghtenment! We went on a city tour with SAS Travel taking in the local Inca ruins - Qorikancha, Saqsayhuaman, Tambomacha Y and Qenqo (don't worry we can't pronounce any of them either!). Saqsayhuaman (pretty much pronounced 'Sexy Woman') was amazing with stone walls built from shaped stones of huge proportions all intricately linked together - those Inca dudes knew what they were doing when it came to architecture. Then we took a Sacred Valley tour, also with SAS, which got us out to ruins further afield. These were great because many of them are current towns and villages all built on Inca foundations. The Inca's had pretty sensible ideas when it came to religion, etc centering much of their worships on Paccha Mama or Mother Earth as it is felt she can provide or take away everything. This means they worship the sun, moon, etc.

During this time we had managed to book our alternative Inca Trail (the Salkantay trek) and after a week enjoying Cuzco the time came to meet up with our fellow hikers who would join us for the next five days of trekking. We had a few preparatory drinkies in the highly recommendable Los Perros bar in town and then headed to bed early before our 4am pick up!!!

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Photos

The Stunning View from Hostel LOKI
Plaza De Armas, Cuzco

Saqsayhuaman
Inca ruins overlooking Cuzco

Pisac
Inca ruins in the Sacred Valley

Hmmm Roast Cuy (Guinea Pig)
A local peruvian delicacy. Max and Monty (childhood pets), please forgive me!

Comments

[San Diego Pete]

Wuss
I cant believe you ate an overgrown rat but wouldn't eat a shrimphead!

[Dads]

Hello again
Hello Again

[Sarah]

You actually ate the roast guinea pig?!!?!?!?

[John Lewis]

Peru
What is there to say !! - except that there used to be a pub called the Cross Keys in Dowlais (also 3,000 metres altitude) which suddenly closed down a few years back and the owners disappeared. Often wondered where they went.