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Published: September 14th 2007
We arrived in Cusco this morning, after the LONGEST bus journey ever! We had a comparatively comfortable bus, but we arrived in Cusco this morning looking like refugees. Not sure if it was the altitude or our colds, but we were both a bit hard-done by. But we found ourselves a hostel, and eventually managed to organise a taxi, and we´re all settled! Our hotel is pretty basic, but it´s clean and safe. And a total bargain at only US$5 a night! We´ll stay here in Cusco for at least a week. We´ve booked in with the Excel Language school for a weeks tuition to help us along with our Spanish. We´re managing to get by, but even if you can say what you want in Spanish, you still need to be able to understand the answer (which is the part we´re definately struggling with).
Cusco is absolutely amazing. Peru is such a country of contrasts! Lima was kind of dirty and polluted (and I guess it wasn´t helped by the garua (coastal fog which hangs around from April to December). There´s also so much poverty. The outskirts we found particularly shocking, and I definately felt a bit guilty seeing
all of this while we were cruising around on our holiday. We then travelled through the desert to Nasca, which is so amazingly beautiful. It´s so dry and dusty (pretty much expected for a desert) but it certainly puts things in perspective! In Toowoomba (where I´m from) they have water restrictions, and the drought is always a serious problem, but in Nasca, it only rains once every 7 or 8 years. Can you imagine? The rest of the time they rely on water running down from the Andes. At times they can only have water for half an hour to an hour a day.
But getting back to Cusco. We left in the night time, so we didn´t see anything of the countryside until this morning, and it was like waking up in a new world. Huge mountains, lots of greenery, and then lots of little villages. The mountains and grounds are all red clay, so the houses are all red too, and as you come into cusco, it´s like this amazing ruby city. Red roofs and walls everywhere. The city itself is huge, but the central part is just gorgeous. Old churches and cathedrals and cobbled streets. I
Typical honeymoon activity
This is what married people do, right? Read at night in their single beds?can´t wait to post pics!
Tomorrow we´re going to tour around the city, and then once we´ve acclimatised to the altitude, we´re hoping to do some trekking! Jamie is making lots of plans! There´s river running on the Rio Urumbamba, and lots of out of the way trekking options. We´re also interested in maybe doing some horse riding.
Will keep you posted!
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