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Published: January 18th 2006
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!Adios 2005!
Blissfully unaware of the fireworks going off around us.. After a stinky 15 hour bus ride from Nazca we arrived in Gringolandia AKA Cuzco (the only seats left were the ones right by the toilet) We have been looking forward to getting back to the fresh mountain air and were greated at the bus station by a man who claimed he was from the hostel, and had been asked to pick us up by our new amigos Kerry and Scott. This basically meant we got a free ride to the Hostal and then got attacked with a full throttle sales pitch! It turned out that Scott and Kerry had booked some tours with this agent and mentioned we were turning up. Seeing as it is the low season business can be hard to come by they took the oppurtunity and pounced! We broke free after a free Coca Mate (to help with aclimatization) and decided on principal not to book a tour with them!
Cuzco really is Gringolandia....and this is supposed to be the low season! In the main plaza you cannot walk more than a few paces before being asked to buy postcards, pictures or finger puppets from kids, they all speak very basic English (and french and
german) They ask where you are from and they proceed to tell you all they know about that country which usually extends to the capital city, the Prime Minister or President, the language spoken and the currency. Why they feel you need to know this is beyond me...! After several days of being hounded by the kids we resorted to saying random countries just to stump them...it works... What was impressive though was hearing one girl recite all the Presidents of the US in the right order.
There is a street which is actually called Gringo Alley. It is very narrow and is lined with restaurants on both sides, all offering exactly the same spread. There's nothing like orgininality eh!? Unfortunately there is a cool bar (Los Perros) at the top of this alley and so we have had to brave the walk of shame a few times.. tunnel vision is whats needed.
The Plaza is beautiful and very large around which are colonial arcades, a church and a hugely impressive Cathedral with a solid silver altar. The cobbled streets many with walls of orginal Inca stonework create a more interesting layout than the usual city block format
Indian Children
Just had to take a picture with them in all their garb! and away fromt he maddening crowds it is a beautiful city to take some time to stroll around.
Over the first couple of days we took it easy as is advised at high altitude. This time round it was JGirls turn for the altitude to hit hard and from the moment we got to Cuzco, her left knee started to play up (apparently it can effect your joints too.) I also had a lot of problmes especially with the stairs!
Over the days leading up to New Year we did a bit of sightseeing but we found that we ran out of energy fast and that JGirl's knee was not getting any better. We did manage to squeeze in some nice meals with our Canadain buddies Scott and Kerry, over which I think we may have managed to talk them into coming over to England on their next trip. We parted company with the exchange of two words.... Canada will surely be a better place with the word "faffing" to be installed from Winnipeg outwards and we have been plessed with the new sport of "Crapola" which we will be implementing for next Christmas!
From Trujillo, we
Indian Women
Spot the ood one out! have been travelling with a package from Bruce for one of the Volunteers working for Bruce Peru here and so we went to drop it off and meet the clan. We were warmly welcomed. After a brew we found ourselves with an invitation to spend the New Year celebrations with them which we did..
Choosing to spend New Year here was definitely a great idea. We had an absolute blast. We started the night round at the Bruce Peru appartment having a few drinks then onto a club caled Mythology which is owned by one of the Volunteer's boyfriends. Fortunately for us as we got free entry. The clubs were charging 50 soles and some even 100 soles entrance!!!
Before midnight we headed to the Plaza which was jam packed with revellers. The streets were lined with yellow balloons (colour to bring good luck), street food vendors out in full effect and the sky (and floor) were full of fireworks. The atmosphere was wicked and on the strike of 12 we were running around the (huge) plaza with hundreds of people. The idea is the more times round the Plaza the more luck you bring for the new
Cusco Walls
Inca Built Stonework year. Oh dear... Duncs and I only managed a pathetic once but my poorly knee would not run any more.
The fireworks were hilarious, homemade no doubt...Health and Safety in the Uk would've had a field day in Cuzco that night basically everyone just let of rockets and firecrakers where ever they wanted and it was upto you to dodge anything coming your way. After lots of woo-ing and arr-ing and general merriment we headed back to the club to dance the night away. When the club finished we bumped into some other friends and we decided to find somewhere else to carry on the night. That we did and we danced until the very early hours of the morning at an underground club playing Peruvian techno.... at some point we hobbled back to our hostal, through the Plaza which was still full with people and crawled into bed. A HAPPY NEW YEAR it was! We fell asleep looking forward to our trip to the fabled Machu Pichu the next day!
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Richard Phillips
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Gringos Maximos
Ah Duncsta and Maynymoo. You crazy kids, having all the fun. I bet you had much rather be back home sifting through telephone logging, eh Duncsta?