Day 11 & 12 Beautiful Cuzco

---

The trip to Cuzco took the better part of the day but Manny had bought 3 DVDs to keep us and the rest of the bus occupied 😊 The in-flight entertainment included 'The Departed' along with two girlie flicks (which Paul wasn't too happy about!). A few hours into the journey we stopped for a break and some snacks at a high point along the road, 4300 meters! - the views were spectacular. After our breather we got back on the bus for more films.... although strangely enough half way through the last film another passenger decided to venture to the top of the bus to try to turn off the film!!! He's obviously not used to bus travel in South America.... here they blast crappy films in Spanish for hours on end during the bus journeys.... anyway, after a few calm yet stern words from Manny the guy went back to his seat with his tail between his legs :-)

We arrived to our hotel about 4/5pm to the biggest hotel room I've ever seen :-) That evening at around 6pm we headed to the lobby for our Lares Trek briefing. The guide told us a bit about the hike, what to bring, what to expect, etc. and we were all given a duffel bag for our clothes, etc. The Lares Trek is one of the alternatives to the Inca trek. It's about 36km split into 3 days - 1 pass and approximately 11 km on day 1, 17km and 2 passes on the second day and about 8km mostly downhill (thank god!) on the last day. It's supposed to be the most scenic of the treks and is very remote with few other tourists along the way, if any!! The first day is supposed to be pretty tough because you climb from 3800m to over 4300m in and hour and a half!!! I can feel the burn already 😊

After the briefing Manny brought us out on a mini tour of the city. Paul and I were blown away.... Cuzco is a beautiful city with lots of lovely buildings and a gorgeous main plaza surrounded by cafes, churches, etc. After our mini-Manny tour we headed to an Australian bar for dinner. Really cool bar full of chilled out people. Amazing food, great cocktails and a few hours of VERY competitive jenga!! ps... the girls won :-) (No the boys won! - Paul)

After dinner, a mini pub crawl. I have to admit we did give in to one drink in the Irish bar! But it's the HIGHEST Irish bar in the worldl!!! We ended up in a Peruvian nightclub which was absolutely jam packed full of people and had a great night. Getting back into the hotel that night wasn't an easy task though. It involved poor Karl, one of the other Irish guys in the group, scaling a pretty large wall in order to wake the VERY hard-of-hearing security guard :-) All in all a great night in Cuzco :-)

The following morning (more like mid afternoon) we woke and headed for lunch with a few of the others. After a lovely lunch we headed to one of the main streets in Cuzco to buy supplies for the Lares Trek. We bought a few torches, headlamps, inner liners for the rented sleeping bags, beautiful thermal undies!!! and snacks for the trip. That evening we picked up our sleeping bags and thermorest from reception and attempted to shove everything into the duffel bag while making sure it was under 7kg (although they are a bit more lenient on the lares trek because horses carry the gear instead of porters). We weighed the bags using the laundry scales in the reception of the hotel but the hotel scales definitely appears to be a bit top-heavy!! After dinner that night we headed home early because tomorrow we're up at 5:30am for day 1 of Lares.... Wish us luck!!

-- By Karen

---

Photos

Poncho Anyone?
Stop on our way to Cuzco

eXtreme Altitude!
We're reached over 4,300 meters today on the way to Cuzco....

Amazing Scenery
Quick pic taken from the bus on route to Cuzco

Brick Layers Nightmare!
Beautiful wall in Cuzco