Cusco: Capital of Incas and Gringos

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After spending most of the previous 3 days on a bus, I arrived in Cusco, one of the most important Inca cities and South America´s current gringo capital. There are more white people and tourists here than anywhere else I´ve seen so far!

It´s a cute little town, but the number of people trying to sell you one of the following gets a bit irritating. Popular sells: Massage, Shoe cleaning, food/drink, tours/guides, dolls/textiles

We got here Friday morning, and after bumming around for most of the day (which included me buying a poncho!) we met up with my friend Charlie and two of his friends Jess and Scott for dinner and a drink.

The plan for the next day was to go rafting, but total confusion in the morning occured between me Charlie and Jess since we had obvious problems contacting each other. Molly and Liam weren´t up for going rafting, but came to see us off before heading around Cusco.

In the end though, since Charlie had to move out, we werent able to go rafting since we were too late to catch the bus to the river. However this worked out perfectly, since we managed to get an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) 4 hour tour which was one of the most fun things I´ve done. (I also had a really dodgy sandwich for breakfast, which I will come back to later)

The four hours consisted of Charlie, Jess and me overtaking each other, cutting each other off and bumping into each other on narrow winding roads and cliffs in the mountains above Cusco. We also did loads of jumps off ramps which was cool. Jess also had a pretty close call, when she did some inexplicable manouvere on a turn (which I had beat her on) which resulted in her crashing into a wall, and the bike almost falling on top of her. She managed to get away, but broke her camera. And yeah it was funnnny!

The funniest part however was four Israelis who were part of our group. They chose to play it safe, not go fast, not overtake and generally be good unlike us, but one of them ended up smashing into Jess by mistake, and denting his bumper and another messed up his bike by doing bad ramp jumps. So in the end after all our silly stunts we got away paying 20 soles (Jess) and the Israelis were still stuck arguing with the ATV guy about how much they had to pay.

After we got back we found Molly, Liam and Scott and had a quick dinner and decided to shower (we had probably eaten a kilo of dirt after 4 hours of ATVing) and then meet for a drink. I was so tired however, that after my shower I just collapsed on bed, which meant I didnt get to say bye to Charlie and Scott who were heading off that night.

All in all a good day, pictures courtesy of Jess´(broken) camera!

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Photos

ATVing
Excited Charlie

ATVing
Wooooo!!

ATVing
Getting set, all smiles

ATVing
Nervous Charlie

ATVing
Me

ATVing
Charlie

ATVing
Charlie jumping

ATVing
Jess full of adrenalin

ATVing
Me looking like Ive crashed though I am actually executing a smooth turn up a slope

ATVing
Hollywood style

Alive!
I know I look like I have a black tooth, but its probably all the dirt in mouth

Comments

[Chris]

Inspired
I have been thinking about a year out and was just randomly searching to be inspired. Your blog has inspired me. I still can’t face the MD and I am still building up courage but I have listed some of your trips as places “ I need to see”. Enjoy the rest of the trip looks cool!