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Cusco
Amazing colours of a Cusco market stall We arrived in Cusco around 1PM, exhausted, hungry and frustrated after the 49 hour trip from London. Cusco was 3300 meters above sea level and as soon as I stepped off the plane I started having shortness of breath and occasionally a little dizzy due to the high altitude. We grabbed our bags and headed outside into the beautiful warm weather to meet our tour leader from Charity Challenge, George then jumped on a bus towards the hotel. Obviously since we had arrived so late, our trip would have to be amended to take into consideration we had lost our acclimatisation day in and around Cusco. So George explained what was going to happen today and also broke the news that we would be setting off on our trek tomorrow at 3AM. We were horrified to hear of the early start but also realised we were lucky to be here in the first place, any later and our trip would have been cancelled.
Once we arrived at the hotel, George briefed the group before we checked in and headed to our rooms, it was good to finally have a shower and bed. We didn’t have much time before meeting the
Cusco
Impressive Cathedral in the centre square of town rest of the group at a restaurant around the corner for lunch. So I had a very quick shower and threw on some clean clothes then left the hotel on my own to try find somewhere which sold memory cards for my camera before meeting everyone else. I found what I needed in a small run-down shop where no-one spoke English. And they may have ripped me off, but I didn’t care, making sure I had I could take photos was more important than anything else. Afterwards I struggled my way up steep streets to the restaurant where everybody else was just arriving, by the time I got there I was exhausted.
We all had an interesting lunch of various traditional Peruvian dishes and celebrated a long but eventual arrival to Cusco. George went through what we were doing tomorrow and explained that tomorrow would be a relatively easy day and we would camp at a lower than usual altitude to help us acclimatise. Also during lunch the group had gathered together $5 each for Hannah’s to help purchase much of the hiking gear she no longer had after her luggage was lost, a very generous gesture which helped
Cusco
The steep narrow streets of Cusco a lot. Once lunch was finished we left the restaurant to meet a local guide who would accompany us on the trek, Max. And after a brief introduction he took us on a walking tour around the beautiful city of Cusco. All of us except Hannah as she and George went to buy as much hiking gear as possible, this was her last opportunity before we set off tomorrow morning.
Max lead us down the narrow and at times steep streets of Cusco as we slowly made our way towards the main square. Finally I was able to take photos, while I prayed that the new memory card would not break. The main square of Cusco was stunning. With a large fountain in the center and a number of huge churches and many restaurants all surrounded in mountains it was an impressive place to be. Max explained all about each of the churches and the history of Cusco before we slowly headed back to the hotel. On the way many of us took advantage of the numerous market stalls and bought various souvenir’s, I bought a knitted Peru hat as it would be very cold at night in the
Cusco
The beautiful centre square of Cusco Peruvian highlands. Eventually we arrived back at the hotel where Hannah had also just arrived from shopping. We briefly met with one of George’s good friends, a local witch doctor who had brought some of his wares to sell. I bought a beaded Peruvian wristband from him and he was very grateful. I could not ignore sleep any longer, Hannah and I headed back to our room and packed our bags ready for tomorrow, before falling asleep.
Hotel Altitude: 3300M
Accommodation: Samay Hotel
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