Cusco, peru

18th - 20th Jan

Cusco was once the capital of Peru (prior to Lima) why? Because it was the central point of both religion and politics in the Inca age

We arrived into cusco in the early hours of the morning at 7am half dazed after our bus ride we weren't able to check in to our hostel La'Bom until noon so we wandered about town to begin our research on either the Inca trail or salkantay trek

We sat in the square to have biscuits and snacks whilst watching a Peruvian band play in the main plaza. We went on a free walking tour of cusco where we learnt a great deal about the city.

For example the Inca stone infrastructure made to be earthquake-proof (disjointed and jigsaw like) the windows and doors are also at a slant. This is fascinating Inca architecture and also the cusco mini Christ redeemer.
The walking tour ended with a Pisco sour (perus most famous drink) we sipped upon our pisco sours whilst chatting to a lovely Colombian couple. The male reminded us of Rakesh Nayee.

We were pretty exhausted so we had dinner at Prasado (iskon restaurant - where we saw a picture of our hanumanji, shiv) and went back to our hostel

So the thing about hostels is .... you have to have a go with the flow type approach

Sharing a dorm room with randoms is one thing the other is trying to fall asleep when Mr-I-Have-Guitar decides to strum some tunes when you are just about to fall asleep.

An eye mask and ear plugs are a must!

The next morning we had breakfast (pancakes and Jam and a bread roll) whilst listening to bob Marley - buffalo solider.

We continued our research for the treks, visited San Catalina market, had some Granadilla (delicious juicy passion fruit that you check open like an egg) and chilled in the plaza. We were amazed to see the number of young children selling tourist merchandise in the plaza till very late at night

Whilst sitting in the plaza a young girl came over to sell llama keyrings
She wouldn't accept no for an answer so I purchased my first blue Llama off her - every day thereafter without a doubt I would bump into her once again - I discovered (with the assistance of my Spanish phrasebook) her name was Kana, 10 years of age

We met Tom and Hannah in the plaza and did some more research into treks - after much deliberation we decided to go with Salkantay/Machu Picchu reservations

We also book our tickets to the sacred valley to visit chinchenaro, ...
Got pizza and chips then went back to the hostel

I was so relieved to have booked our trek to Machu Picchu - finally!Read more