"Let's have a quiet day, a short walk"

That was my answer around midday to Flo, when she asked me what we would do.

We had arrived around 8am in Cusco, after a 12 hour journey during which Flo and I barely slept, so we stayed in the hotel in the morning.

My body clock didn't want me to sleep, so when we finally went out around 1300, I was very tired. It's 3400m up here, so any activity is much more strenuous. In short, I was at my limit, but a walk for lunch, and quickly showing the others the magnificent Plaza des Armes seemed feasible, and on 364 out of 365 days, it would have been.

On this day, however, what normally would be fun and a laugh went wrong. I went back to the hotel with a bad headache and worse blurred vision. (After having a detached retina last year, I am paranoid about this) After 3 hours of sleep, I was actually fine.

You see, we didn't know, but yesterday was the last day of festival here, and alongside the traditional march past of dancers, bands, and other groups , the central square becomes one giant foam fight For good measure, buckets of cold water and water balloons are part of the mix.

Tourists are not off limits, and indeed, we were also targets . We got covered in foam and soaked in water.

At first, it was all fun, and we laughed, but after a while, a headache started, and I couldn't see properly, and I started to feel disorientated. The cold water made me shiver.

I don't think it was ever serious, but it was disturbing. Anyway, now it's past , and it teaches me to be careful about pushing limits. I think here the mix of tiredness, high altitude, and the interference with sight together with the cold showers was just too much.

Before we went out for dinner, we checked if the foam fight was over. " It should be , but it might continue here and there till the morning," was the answer. Luckily, we managed to miss a 2nd dose, and warm food brought back the missing zest. All good, looking forward to a deep sleep.Read more