Cusco

The guides had woken us up well and truly before sunrise, in order to get seats at the final gate (just in case it rained…). I was feeling horrible – I couldn’t even put breakfast down my throat. I could barely walk… at least we got to the gate early so we did manage to get seats. An Irish couple gave me some tablets for my upset tummy – I wished so bad that the drugs would kick in immediately… the Turtles stuck with me as I was walking very very slowly… I simply didn’t have the energy to walk at all. They force fed me an energy bar and juice. A friend carried my day pack for me, which helped me immensely – total lifesaver!! Just as we got to the base of the “sun gate” I was faced with the worlds most steepest stairs – which didn’t even look safe. I don’t know how I managed to get up without cracking my head, but I managed YAAY!

The rest of the group had managed to secure a good vantage point to see the sunrise above Macchu Picchu, so we joined them. I simply wanted to sit down. To everyone’s disappointment, the clouds did not part. The “faster” portion of the group continued to walk to Macchu Picchu, whereas I needed some more time, so the Turtles waited with me. We were somewhat lucky, the clouds parted for about 5 minutes and we saw Macchu Picchu in all its glory – but it wasn’t long enough. We decided to continue our walk and we made it to Macchu Picchu. Close up it was far more amazing. To be honest, the view from the Sun Gate was abit of an anti-climax. But seeing it up close, was AMAZING!

Our guide took us to a few sites and explained the importance. After this, we had free time to explore the Incan site ourselves. It was really cool to be wandering around and taking in our surroundings…

All in all, wandering around Macchu Picchu was truly SPECTACULAR!

We then made our way to Aguas Calientes to catch up with our group. (NOTE: do not spend a lot of time here, it isn’t a very nice place, all the prices are severely inflated).

We bid our farewells to our Inca Trail guides: Angel and Clisor, then caught the train and bus back to Cusco.

We spent one final night in Cusco, where we went for wood fire pizza in celebration of my 30^th. The group had even chipped in to buy me a gift – which was very very thoughtful. Our night of fun continued at karaoke – this was sooo much fun! One of the guys even sung “Single Ladies” by Beyonce, which brought the house down!!! I had a very enjoyable and memorable 30^th =)

NOTE: sorry I haven’t been able to publish these next few blogs – I’ve been in Australia constantly travelling… publishing timely blogs will resume =)

My first impressions of Cusco were WOW! I really didn’t think it was that big of a city – how wrong I was… As we were given an orientation walk of the city, I immediately realised that Lima was officially the capital, but Cusco was the Cosmopolitan Capital! Grecia, our guide took us to the main square, which was huge, and there was a large cathedral, the architecture was simply beautiful! We were quite hungry, so we made our way over to a café – Grecia ensured that this was a very good place. We ended up at Jack’s Café – I was extremely thrilled that there were pancakes on the menu!!! You see, every single breakfast that I had until now consisted of balls of butter and strawberry jam with hollow circular breads – not nice at all! And so pancakes it was! Oh my word – they were delicious!!! I also ordered a mango con leche, which is basically a mango smoothie and this was THE BEST mango con leche I had in Peru! Jack’s was definitely a winner! A group of us kept going back to Jack’s as it clearly was amazing!!!

We made our way to another square, where we joined a free walking tour (well tips were given at the end). There were a lot of people on the tour so it was slightly difficult to hear the tour guide. In any case, he took us to the local markets, showed us a few more “squares” of Cusco, we then ended up in a bar (mind you if was about midday, so naturally the bar was empty). The barmen then demonstrated how to make a pisco sour and when he was finished he invited everyone to take a free sample and showed how to salute (something along the lines of: to mother nature, to inca and so on…).

One of my most favourite things about Cusco was the Chocolate Museum – it was FREE and FANTASTIC! As you enter the museum, a guide tells you about the chocolate industry in Peru. You are then taken to the next room where you can watch the Chocolatier’s working. The chocolatier that we were watching was very friendly, she told us about the different flavours – even gave us free samples to try! One of the peculiar (well I found it strange) was the cocoa leaf flavour – it seems as though it’s everywhere… We were also given a small glass of chocolate tea to try – which was delicious. You then have the option to buy chocolate and related products OR you can even have a sit down treat at the cafe, which has a nice view out to the square.

On our last day in Cusco, we all went into town to buy some bits and bobs before we moved onto the next stage of the journey. Once we arrived at the main square, we were all gobsmacked – there were hundreds of people there, ALL in festive outfits. We didn’t really understand what was going on, but we gathered that it was some sort of school festivity as there were loads of school aged children. It was amazing site to see, all those bright colours were AMAZING!

Cusco is a definite must – ok there are loads of tourists here but all the same, it really was an amazing place!