Cusco - Pre Inca Trail

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To be brutally honest i am writing this on 2nd April not between 26th and 29th March when we were "preparing" (huge pinch of salt required) in Cusco before our trek but i´ll do my best to try and convey the highlights.

We arrived overnight from Arequipa on the Cruz del Sur, it was pretty comfortable again and the film choice not too bad (Flightplan - Jodie Foster loses her child on a plane, good first half - fell apart during second part - many sighs from seats 1 and 2). We had booked a hotel recommended by our hotel in Arequipa and it was situated high up in the San Blas area of Cusco. Things didn´t start well when we got ripped off by the cabbie from the bus station (2 quid versus 80p which it should have been - bank breaker!), then we couldn´t find the front door, then they gave us a room opposite the breakfast room, which started at 5am, with no windows and a bath next to the bed! We ended up in another room which was fine but later began to smell of raw sewage, which is nice. Anyway, i tried hard to temper my princess tendancies and we resigned ourselves to staying there as it would only be for two nights and had one big redeeming feature - it was cheap..

We started strolling round Cusco as soon as we could, it really is a beautiful place, and the San Blas district particularly picturesque with cobbled streets, cute plazas, alleyways and artsy crafty type stuff everywhere. However we were struck by two things: firstly, some of the pavements are literally 18 inches wide, there are lots of people and the driving is not exactly conservative, so there tends to be a constant jumping on and off of pavements into the road to overtake others or get out of the way of passing cars, normally taxis. Secondly, it is quite touristy here and walking in the main plaza means getting hawked and hassled for pictures, woollen hats, sweets, fags, restaurants, massages (particularly massages), tours, finger puppets to name but a few things. Whilst it is understandable (40% of peruvians who can work actually have jobs) it can be a bit incessant and it is the first place this has happened to us. Anyway after a morning´s "non gracias" ad nauseum we went for lunch and ended up having a bottle of wine - not ideal altitude training. We then met our buddies Tom and Henrick for supper at the fabulous "Heidi" restaurant and had yet more wine - so we began to like Cusco more and more.

The next couple of days were spent wandering around town and preparing for the Inca Trail including shopping (hats, dried fruit, head torch, tissues, chocolate, scarves, water bottles) we really had no idea what it was going to be like. We discovered that we were doing the trek with one other couple and that was going to be our group, obviously we were a bit apprehensive, what if they were monsters/really young/ really fit/really square/ really cool? Anyway, all our fears subsided when we met Cathy and Mike Smith from Jersey. On first meeting they seemed absolutely lovely and as it turned out we couldn´t have wished for better trek mates. We also met our guide the night before we went, her name was Milu - she looked very slight and very capable. So after our briefing, we synchronised watches for 5am, and spent the evening packing and bemoaning our lack of training and after a fitful night of sleep we left for the Inca Trail.... TBC

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