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Published: October 9th 2005
Plaza De Armas
Rachel in CuscoWell our flight from Iquitos waso on time, there were no delays and we did'nt get bumped off although there was an earthquake in Peru the night before we left Iquitos (Guy felt the earth move, Rachel did not!) and our plane had to fly to Chiclayo to pick up some stranded passengers as the earthqauke knocked out the rumnway lights at Chiclayo. This meant a 2 hour flight to Lima insetad of one. We didn't mind though, and we saw Chiclayo briefly fom the air (not much to report really). Our connecting flight from Lima to Cusco went without hitch and we took it very easy for the first few days so as to get acclimatised to the altitude (about 3300 metres abouve sea level). The air is noticably thinner here and we felt light headedd for the firs couple of days. The slightest physical exertion can also be exhausting so we had a good excuse to do bugger all for a few days.
Cusco is really nice and much slower and more laid back than Iquitos. We spent a good few days exploring it's narrow cobblestone streets, visiting the plethora of churches and museums, shopping for hats, socks
and other traditional gifts and sampling the local culinary delights, one of which being Alpaca! It tastes a bit like fillet steak, with a hint of liver flavour, and is delicious. The only off putting thing about Cusco is the constast people approaching you asking if you want to eat in theri restaurant, buy their wares, go on their tour or buy their drugs! We just ignored it after a while and is wasn't a problem.
As for Machi Picchu, we decided that the 4 day Inca Trail hike wasn't for us (it was booked solid for weeks anyway, now that the Peruvian Government restricts the number of hikers on the trail) so we decided to book the train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes (the nearest town and 8km from the ruins) and decided to stay a couple of there so we could spend as much time at the ruins as we wished. It's a 4 hour train journey each way so if you do it in a day you get about 3 to 4 hours at Machu Picchi itself which we didn't think would be enough... and we were right! The site itself really has to bee seen
to be beleived and we spent hours there. We also did the hike up to Waynu Picchu which are ruins at the top of the big mountain you see in off the pictures of the ruins. Getting up here involved a vigorous hike up a steep and uneven trail for a good hour. The views frome the top made it all worthwhile though.
We were due to have just one night back in Cusco before getting a bus to Puno (which is on the shore of Lake Titicaca) but Guy picked up a rather nasty Peruvian 'friend'and spent the day we should have been travelling to Puno doing the 10 meter dash between bedroom and bathroom. He was so ill that we had to get a doctor out who said he probabaly had caught a parasite and his proposed cure was a large injection in the left arse cheek (the doc even asked which one he'd prefer!) and 10 pills a day for 3 to 6 days. Doing the bus to Puno wasn't really an option for quite a few days so we decided instead to buy a couple of flights to La Paz, Bolivia which was to be
Cusco
From above our next stop anyway. We managed to find a couple of cheap tickets and after several extra nights in Cusco, we finally flew and that's where we are now (see next blog).
Guy is much better now and is due to pop his last pill this evening... hurrah! (We think it was some dodgy meat on a pizza in Aguas Calientes that was responsible) We are, despite illness, continuing to have a fantastic time and love all your messages, please keep em coming!
There's a few more snaps here for you to look at so until the next time,
Pip pip,
Guy & Rachel xxx
PS there's an exciting full route map with mileage and other fun statistics... watch this space!
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