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Published: March 24th 2006
Gay Pride - Plaza de Armas
No, actually it's the flag of the region.... This was on Sunday (we made it out for about an hour !)Well, where do we begin? We got to Cuzco on the night of Wednesday 15 March and you may well wonder what we've achieved in the 10days spent here thus far......
The unfortunate truth is that we have visited a total of 0 museums and gone on a total of 0 organised trips. Most of our time has been split between our bedroom (sounds better than it was!!!) and Cuzco's main Plaza.
On Friday 17th we spent the day planning and sorting out the time ahead of us in Cuzco. Priorities were; Spanish lessons for a week, 2 days trip to Machu Picchu including a little hike and a flight out of Cuzco to La Paz, Bolivia (yes its not that far but as you know from previous entry, the busses have not always agreed with us!).
So, we booked our Spanish lessons to begin on Monday. Put down our deposit, booked our trains to Machu Picchu for Saturday morning and discovered that flights to La Paz have been stopped..... everything was sorted apart from the flights and we just resigned ourselves to the gruelling bus trip.
0100 Saturday, the downfall begins. Chris was pretty ill throughout
Military Pride, Peru Style
If one works for the government, one marches. Simple. From the Army to the teachers to the administrators. Marching (and stamping and protesting) is what Peruvians seem to do. the night, having those bad nightmares associated with sickness. Tossing and turning, periodically vomiting, making aquaintance with the toilet from both ends....
0430 Saturday, Machu Picchu train (due to leave at 0615) becomes an impossibility and damage-limitation takes over. Rachel with one comatosed Chris takes taxi to the train station at 0530 and has tickets stamped as the first step to cancel them. (Stamps seem to typify the Peruvian way of doing things.... beauracracy at its best!). The next step was to return at 0900 to the ticket office (at a different location of course!) and accept the 10% charge (on a ticket price of 70 dollars!) to get the money back. Sorted.
Monday. Situation remains the same, Spanish lessons get put on hold.
Tuesday. Chris sees improvement, his love affair with the toilet comes to an end and he is up and about and "BLOODY STARVING!".
Rachel falls ill.
Spanish lessons CANCELLED.
Wednesday. Rachel still sick. Chris improving by the day. Bowel movements back to normal, sleeping well again (thanks in part to Valium given over the counter after complaining of sickness induced insomnia!)
Wednesday P.M decided to take the plunge and
Administrators
There was a parade of different groups of administrators, teachers, police etc all marching on Sunday. These are the administrators with the suitably gray uniforms. I hope they administrate better than they march! book train tickets for Machu Picchu the following day. (By now both are fed up of Cuzco and the four walls of our room and need to get MP out of the way and get out!)
Thursday. Machu Picchu. Day begins at 0500, train leaves at 0615. Took about an hour to get out of Cuzco itself as it has to zigzag back and forth, over the hills surrounding the city. Reversing, switching points, going forwards, switching points, reversing...........
After 4.5hours we arrive at Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes) and make our way to the city of Machu Picchu itself. Really impressive, lucky with the weather (see photos).
Left at 1550 (a real shame we couldnt / didnt stay longer) and eventually got back to Cuzco at 2100.
Rachel spends the evening vomiting.
Friday 24th. Plan was to leave for Puno (again!!) breaking up the journey south to Bolivia. However, owing to lingering sickness it has been postponed until tomorrow. (Fingers crossed!).
So yeah, the highlight of Peru really. Lots achieved....... It's a shame because we had high hopes and lots of plans for Cuzco. Still, hopefully we will both be 100% soon and we
Other tourist
There are plenty of other tourists in Cuzco. Here is an example. can enjoy the next part of the trip.
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Susan
non-member comment
Wow! You finally made it!
Hope the altitude was ok for you at MP, and you now have regained your strength after your sojourn in Cuzco!Guess you have more MP photos than you've put up on the site. All the best for the next stage of the trip. Love from us all, Aunty Susan (off to NZ next w/end)