Blogs from Cusco, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 183

We´ve been living amongst the Incas now for about 10 days here at the centre of their mighty empire. On Friday we will set off for the Manu Reserve - the deepest, darkest, steamiest, primevalest jungle we´ve been able to find in Peru. If this is the last blog you receive, assume we have been chewed to pieces by the mosquitos or perhaps pounced on by a man-eating anteater in the night. With luck, the trip could be as great as our visit to the Galapagos Islands. If nothing else, it´s jaw-clenchingly expensive, albeit nowhere near as expensive as the aforementioned Galapagos. After Manu, it´s off to Arequipa, then Puno, and onward to Bolivia. Meanwhile, some thoughts on the Incas: As everyone knows, they built their amazing mountain-top fortresses without the aid of the wheel. Gigantic ... read more

It is indeed the 21st of December, and Mike and I are madly packing up our apartment in Vancouver for our south American adventures to begin! Quite frankly, I'm feeling about done with this part of the adventure, I've scrubbed one too many disgusting appliances for my tastes and am totally anxious to be on our way. Leaving for Hawaii pretty damn quick here and then, I'll be back to Vancouver for a day to collect Mike and we're off!! Thank God. That's where it's at now, highly uninteresting.... read more

Forgot to say Merry Christmas! Not sure if I will be able to write again before the 25th. Hope you all have a great one!... read more

After an uneventful journey we arrived in Cusco about 6am and headed for Hostel LoKi that had been highly recommended. After helping ourselves to their complimentary breakfast (whilst waiting for reception to open) we unfortunately found out that the hostel was fully booked for the next couple of days, this despite it not having found its way into LP yet. Fortunately they were able to recommend Hostel Qorichaska which was just round the corner and equally nice. Our first good showers for at least a couple of weeks felt fantastic! As we headed out to explore Cusco, the contrast with Arriquipe was immediately obvious. The massive increase in the number of tourists was accompanied by an equivalent increase in the number of people trying to sell things to us. After completing our most important job of ... read more

After the excitement of the jungle we spent a quiet couple of days in Baños, only visiting the El Pailon del Diablo waterfall, before heading to the colonial city of Cuenca. This is a beautiful city, lovely buildings and nice shops. We visited the Pumapungo museum and Inca ruins. Nothing too exciting apart from the section devoted to the ‘Headshrinkers’ - tribes in the Amazon who used to remove and shrink the heads of their enemies in order to gain their power and appease their gods. There were real shrunken heads on show! Next we left Ecuador and headed into Peru via Tumbes, a crazy border town, to the beach resort of Punta Sal. We were amazed at how barren the Peruvian coast line is, hardly a plant in sight. Punta Sal was a great place, ... read more