Day 1 in Cusco

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So the flight to Lima landed early last night about 10.40pm. We had to collect our luggage even though we were lying through on a connecting flight to Cusco at am. We managed to get totally lost in the small airport which was surprisingly busy at that time of night. People were shouting taxi? Taxi? At us whilst we were trying to find our way to the airport hotel without getting out outside. We found the hotel in the end and walked in to find a huge group of American retirees all checking in and having loud conversations with each other which echoed in the reception. We managed to check in and got complimentary drinks vouchers for either a lemonade or a pisco sour cocktail which is the Peruvian national cocktail. Normally we wouldn't pass up on a free cocktail but it was about 11.30pm by this point and we'd barely slept on the plane and were really tired and just wanted to get to our room and get as much sleep as possible before our alarms went off at 3am. So we dumped the bags in the room, shot down to the bar for our free lemonade and then went back upstairs to get some sleep, although not before I'd raided the mini bar and eaten a Snickers and tub of Pringles as I was starving and hadn't eaten or drank anything since 4pm. In fact Steph hadn't either which turned out to be my fault! During the flight she was dozing on the plane and I was half asleep to see the trolley carts go down the aisle. We'd convinced ourselves we didn't get any food on the flight as again we were on the economy cheapo tickets and we thought we'd have to pay for drinks etc. So the cart came down and the guy next to me turned down the drinks offer and so did I as all my money was up in the overhead bin. They gestured if Steph wanted anything and I said no as she was asleep. Turns out they were serving not only free drinks but full on plane food meals on the trays as well and I've turned down both for us.Then of course Steph wakes up two mins later saying oh good they are serving food when I had to tell her she wasn't getting any as I turned it down for us and they had already been past. I then heard all about it for the rest of the flight!



So after the mini bar raid, we managed to get about 3 hours sleep in the really nice hotel room with the really nice comfortable beds. I really wished we could have stayed there until morning! But no the alarms went off at 2.50am so we got up put our stinky plane outfits back on (urgh!) then checked out and headed back to the airport. We checked in for our flight and then headed through the usual security and to the gate which was full of people. I suspect they had bumped others off our cancelled flight also just to fill this plane up. We boarded and Steph sat in her window seat whilst I sat the opposite side. Turns out I had two people next to me whilst lucky Steph had a spare seat next to her then a guy on the aisle seat so we could have sat together after all! It didn't matter though as I was pretty grumpy and sleep deprived and just tried to sleep as much as possible so much so I even missed the safety briefing and take off. The flight was only supposed to be an hour and a half but it ended up being two and a half hours in the end because just as we were coming into land at Cusco and were pretty close to the ground the plane sped up and lifted up again into the clouds. The pilot came on the tannoy and said because of the weather he was having to do a go around which was completely normal and didn't effect the safety of the flight. No idea why it took us an extra hour though, although there was a lot of mist/fog/low cloud swirling and rolling over the mountains. In fact the first glimpse I got of the mountains were them poking up through the cloud. It looked very magical and mystical and my thoughts turned to the trek that we start on Thurs morning. I'm still excited to get started although the realisation that it could very well rain for the whole time is starting to sink in.



Once we got off the plane and got through to baggage claim, we were just about to go to the loo before collecting our baggage when a Peruvian man came over saying my name. We assumed it was the taxi driver so he said he'd get our bags off for us while we went to the loo. He then escorted us out of the terminal building and directed us to a man with a sign with my name on, he took our bags to the boot of the car and put them in. It was at this point we realised that he was just a chancer who had seen my name on a board with the actual taxi driver outside then come to find us just to 'help' with our luggage and then demanded a tip at the door of the taxi. The worst bit was the smallest note we had was 10 soles which is the half the cost for the taxi journey back to the hotel which took about 15mins. The cheeky sod even tried to say 20 as there were two people but I gave him a tenner and shut the door! The taxi driver was nice and helped us inside the hotel with our bags carrying a backpack in each hand with ease! Then the porter inside in the hotel did the same and offered to get us coca tea and was just a nice man in general, him and the taxi driver also bowed their heads when we thanked them which was nice without them demanding tip money. I did give the hotel porter a tip though which seems to have got us in favour with him as we only inquired about getting some Laundry done at reception and before we knew it when we were in our room he was knocking on the door offering to take it down. It's costing us $6 per kilo and we get in back tonight which is good.



After managing to blag an even earlier check in at 8.30am and break our previous record we dropped our bags off and went for a wander to get some breakfast. Along the way we got accosted by the usual tourist sellers who just all seemed to think saying Macchu Pichu over and over was going to get them a sale. We found a little cafe and had a really nice breakfast which was really cheap. Although at first translating the menu was a struggle as it was all in Spanish and with Steph being a Vegetarian it's always a bit risky ordering something you don't know what it is. Luckily I found the app on my phone which translates the words using the camera if you scan it over the words so we managed to work out what most things were. I think it will come in handy for the rest of the trip. After breakfast we carried on wandering around and found a supermarket to get some drink and crisps for the hotel room. To help with the altitude sickness you're supposed to eat a carb heavy diet but in small quantities so we thought we'd get some crisps to nibble on if we feel a bit iffy (well that's my excuse anyway!). Talking about altitude sickness so far we seem OK, I've taken another Diamox pill and Steph has started on hers, and I've also popped some ibuprofen to ward off any possible headaches. Breathing seems to be fine so far but it might kick in, in the coming hours we've just got to take it easy for the next couple of days and not do too much although my Fitbit has just buzzed at 9000 steps so we've walked more than I thought already. I don't know what I was expecting but apart from feeling a bit 'heady' which to be honest could be more lack of sleep we seem OK. It's now 11am typing this although it really doesn't feel that early, my body clock is completely out of sync, so I'm going to have a quick bath and catch up on some more sleep for a couple of hours then I think we are going to try and get our bearings more to find out where our trips that we have booked meet etc for the next couple of days.





Walking around, the Peruvian people seem friendly and smiley. The other thing I've noticed is quite a few of them are actually wearing the national dress that you see on the postcards, it's pretty cute! The little kids are all smiley and a little chubby as well exactly like you see in pictures and online and some are strapped to their mothers backs with a blanket with just their little faces poking out! And the other thing is I'm actually one of the tall people here! Most of them are shorter than me which never happens! After a nap and an extra long bath we got ready to go out. I was starting to feel a little strange by this point but it's still hard to tell whether it's tiredness or the altitude although I definitely noticed that I was breathing harder walking around. The key is to just slow down so you can be a bit more consistent which has been the same as when I've been doing my running so thankfully I've been able to slow down rather than try and charge around. We found the local main square and went for a drink at a pub as we're pretty dehydrated still, so we just had soft drinks sitting on a tiny balcony overlooking the square doing some people watching whilst resting. The good thing is even if we get a bit out of breath our recovery has been only a minute or two.



Earlier on I realised I had forgotten to bring my GoPro charger, I thought it would be fine as Steph has one until we realised its a different charger and different batteries for her model. I thought the odds of finding a charger for a new model would be really hard around here but we struck lucky in the first shop we went in and the man even tested it would all work fine. I walked out relieved and didn't even bother to haggle over the price which worked out to about £5. Wandering around the streets there are quite a few stray dogs just meandering but they don't come up to you they just wander past. The streets are busy with cars and taxis and they have traffic officers controlling the traffic with whistles so you constantly hear whistles and beeping from cars. The crossings are weird with green lights for walking yet the traffic doesn't stop so you just have to wait for a gap and leg it. Cusco is completely different to Rio it seems more honest and a more simple way of life. People still try to sell you tours but as soon as you say no gracias they are fine and not at all pushy.



We went for an early dinner at a place we found called Organika. It was only a small place with a few tables but we had the best meals of the trip so far. The restaurant has its own garden growing vegetables, salad and fruits a few miles away in the sacred valley and everything is healthy and homemade but very delicious. Steph had quinoa with vegetables called a vegetarian saltado and I had home made tagliatelle which was green with grilled chicken. Both dishes came out looking very pretty with edible flowers. Steph also had a beer whilst I had a lemonade with mint. When my drink came out it looked like green sludge but was really delicious and very fresh. I had another juice later which was lemonade with carrot which was just as fresh and yummy. The bill came to about £20 for everything which included a chocolate soufflé which we shared. I tried to stay healthy but it looked too good! All the other food in Cusco will have a lot to live up to. The owner was the chef and spoke very good English and she seemed to be training up two waitresses who were new and didn't speak English well at all. It was funny to see her gently telling them off for not putting more effort in greeting tourists who spoke English and also trying to teach them some English words in the background including the concept of sharing a dessert!



After dinner we headed back to our hotel to have a chill and more relax whilst confirming details for our trip planned tomorrow which is a half day ATV tour to several local sites and to some salt mines. Hopefully we have a good nights sleep and don't wake up suffering tomorrow from the altitude. I would think if we get to tomorrow night still feeling ok then we are probably acclimatised ok but we'll still keep taking the Diamox altitude sickness until we are on day three of the trek.

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