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Published: August 23rd 2013
20 Aug Day 8: Cusco City Tour
Well you might wonder where I've been for the last couple of days. In a word Nowhere. It appears that I met and made friends with a couple of little critters who went to work on me - and won. I thought I had altitude sickness but apparently I'm fully acclimatised to the altitude with a blood oxygen level of 92% and what they considered a good heart rate. In fact I was told that because I felt no ill effect at 5,000 metres it was unlikely to be the altitude. So what have I seen of the City of Cusco, well some lights on Monday night, the inside of my eyelids on Tuesday (yes I slept the whole day and actually fell asleep during a conversation with Garry - I think it was about the great day they had). Yesterday I was a bit more alert and got outside the front door of the room but that got too much so I went back inside again. Today was the highlight though - I got into a taxi and went to the Clinico. And that was a tiring day.
So I have no pictures but hope to describe the last couple of days to you through the eyes of the others. In fact I had hoped to get them each to put in their own pieces but of course being busy people it didn't happen.
On Tuesday (20th) was a bit confusing as we thought it was to be a free morning to "get some washing done". Yeh right, they've got a laundry service here at US$2 or US$3 per kilo. Aside from Liz we've all been hanging out for it even if we had to wear dirty clothes. I put in a couple of kilos at a cost of about S/.10 - I couldn't have faced laundry anyway. I'd have probably fallen asleep and drowned in it. The afternoon was then supposed to have been spent on a tour of the main sites in the city itself. However, it was found out at about 10:00 that Tuesday was meant to be a White water rafting day, leaving at 8:00 - Oops. AND we thought the rafting was for half a day in the afternoon - it must have been the Mountain Bike riding that was the half day event.
Liz, Maz, Gaz and Don all went on the bus tour, which lasted about an hour and a half and was apparently great. The description we had in our itinerary read as follows: "You will travel through the beautiful streets of Cusco and also in the surrounding hills. You will visit the fortress of Sacsayhuaman, the temple complex at Kenko, Tambomachay and many other unique and beautiful locations." I'm not sure if it was the same tour but they were more than pleased with it. You will have the evening free to relax and enjoy a meal overlooking the lively central square.
21 Aug Day 9: Sacred Valley Cusco
The Sacred Valley A full day away from Cusco today as you journey into the Andes for a tour of the Sacred Valley of the Urubamba. As you wind your way along one of the most beautiful valleys in the world, you will be able to visit the village of Pisac (including its famous market and temple) and the temple-fortress of Ollantaytambo. You really begin to feel the spirit of the Incas as you visit these extraordinary locations. Buffet Lunch Included Hotel Marqueses Cusco. Liz an Garry turned out at 8:00 am for this one. Again they came back raving about it saying that the guide was very informative and interesting and his English was extremely good. This is not us having a go at the guides for their English but sometimes its hard to distinguish the English from the Spanish. We have also found that the guides tend to move from topic to topic and by the time they get there one is never quite sure how or at what point the topic changed. There was a good example the other day where the guide was talking about how frogs are revered or how statues of bulls on roofs (which by the way replaced Lamas in pre Spanish Times) ended up talking about the standard of education in the area. I looked at Garry and said how did we get there. He just shrugged his shoulders. So it was nice to have a guide that could deliver a very interesting message in a clear manner - in both languages.
Don and Don went adventure seeking with the white water rafting. They had a great day with a great lunch. Maz apparently kept getting told "Lady you don't paddle" so she must have been doing something right. She also got told "Lady you stay in the boat" when the boat was being pulled onto the bank so didn't even get her feet wet. Apparently the rescue boat was a beauty. It Kayak with a very able peddler - he could bail water at the same time but not quickly enough apparently because according to Don he was sitting in the water by the end of the day.
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Jill Messenger
non-member comment
poor phil....hope you're feeling better, and again enjoying your holiday. sorry to spoil it, but not long until you're back in the land of Elite....