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Published: October 4th 2008
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We had to meet in the foyer at 4.50am.. ouch! These early mornings are killing me.. I'm supposed to be on holiday! We got a really early flight to Cuzco and I slept the whole way. I don't even remember taking off. Cuzco was an amazing town and we were so surprised when we turned up at the hotel as it was gorgeous! Hardly roughing it. We had a free day so we all headed for Jack's - a cafe run by an irish guy who now lives here. After all the local peruvian food and drink, we were all desperate for a decent cup of coffee and some home cooked food. The 'works' breakfast was massive and could have fed me for a week. It was so good we went there for dinner again that night and had yet another amazing meal.
You could happily spend a week in Cuzco as it's got everything. There are inca built stone walls everwhere, cobbled streets, great shops, amazing restaurants, and just outside the city are inca ruins and loads of activities to do like mountain biking, rafting, "psychedelic tourism" I mentioned earlier, to name but a few. It's a place most
people come to just before the Inca Trail to break up their trip and to get acclimatized again as it's 3300m asl.
I ended up buying 10 alpaca scarves and sending them home. Felt rather guilty at my impulse purchase but I like to think I'm putting money back into the community... that's the story I am sticking too. Sent them home though at a cost of 25 pounds... ouch.
Learnt a great card game in the evening called Shit Head. Noone here plays rummy! I bought some great playing cards of 'Erotic Pottery' - all very amusing. We played this with some wine before having a night out in Cuzco.. all the bars and clubs are centered around this square and they all give out free drink vouchers, so all 14 of us ventured from bar to bar to get our free drinks then stayed in one club and drank far too much tequila not realising the effect the altitude would have on us... you only need a few drinks to feel drunk. The nightclubs are fantastic and I would really regret that last tequila in the morning....
Woke up at 9am and was rather surprised
Cuzco
telling it how it is! since our bus was leaving at 8am. Lois and I had both slept through the wake up call and our tour guide calling the room, so.. they left without us. We ended up having to take a cab to the sacred valley and missed a local weaving tour, which was probably a good thing as i would have spent more money.
Got to the town in a few hours and walked up the ruins which nearly killed me but it was worth it. Ollantaytambo is such a cute little town. It's another Inca ruin and really picturesque. I loved it here as we were in the middle of knowhere and we were all really excited about doing the Inca Trail in the morning.
We were all allocated duffel bags for the trail and could only take 6kg on the 3 day hike (which included a sleeping bag). You had to fill up the bag with your 'essentials' and they weighed it for you and anything over that weight you had to carry yourself. So.. make up was out first of all as I would have looked like an idiot wearing it. This would later be a turning point
Cuzco
The "unhealthy" breakfast for me. I did the Lares Trek rather than the famous Inca Trail as the trail gets booked up really quickly and I only booked in May. They're fairly similiar although the Inca Trail ends in Machu Pichu and we would stay the night in a hotel before Machu Pichu, so basically one days less hiking..fine by me! Our group was split into those doing Lares/Inca so we met some new people which were great fun too.
Before the 'last supper' I managed to buy yet another jumper and some socks..and did not regret that purchase at all (will explain later). We ate loads at dinner incase we were going to starve on the trail. A few ordered strawberry milkshakes and the woman making them didn't put the lid on the blender and the shake went absolutely everywhere.. in her hair, all over her face and clothes. She was so embaressed she hid behind the counter until her colleague turned up.. a good 10 mins. We all knew what had happened and found this very funny. She managed to slip away but then served us dinner with shake all in her hair. You probably had to be there but
Cuzco
Our hotel! it was her reaction which was pretty funny. Dinner was the bargain price of 4 pounds, water 20p and beer 1 pound (they don't have GBP symbols on south american computers.. grr).
We had an early night ahead of the trek and all very excited.
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