Peru and Cusco!!!!

Well smack my bottom with a Woman's Weekly!!! We are in Peru....Yihaaaaaaaaaaaaa! We finally took delivery of the replacement cameras on Monday and made a quick exit from Ecuador on Tuesday morning. Thank baby jesus and big jesus with the beard! We are finally on the move again.

We have had to make some hard decisions, we are running 2 weeks behind schedule and should really be in Bolivia now. Seeing as the weather has not been great for mountain scenery we have decided to skip a 5 day trek we had planned around Santa Cruz and also to miss out some of the South of Peru and hopefully, if we make some time up, visit there when we return to catch our flight to Panama in February.

Tuesday we catch a bus that takes us over the border. We have heard some real horror stories regarding the Peruvian side... muggings, kidnappings, scams and basically rip off the gringo whenever possible. Obviously we are a tad apprehensive. We have caught an international bus but are unsure of what the procedures are at the border. Lonely Planet says that you have to get off the bus and walk or get a taxi, once you have completed Ecuadorian exit requirements , to the Peruvian Immigration office 2 km away...and this is where you run the gauntlet of crooks, thieves, murderers and rapists!! I'm scared!

Once we approach the border we see the stretch of 'no man's land' that we have to navigate... it's 2Km of ram packed chockablock swarm of people ...our hearts sink. However we don't have to get off the bus and we sail through devils alley with no problems what so ever. We is in Peru!!!

MY first personal task is to find Paddington Bear's Auntie in order to pass on the dreadful news that Paddington is now eating Marmite. Meanwhile we head to our first destination Puira, purely a stopover on our mammoth 1500km journey to Cusco and Machu Picchu.














A slight digression....we send our heart felt thanks to Jess and Jonny for informing us that the squirrel that mugged Adrian is, in the photo, in a somewhat state of excited arousal. Being mugged by a squirrel is one thing but being raped by a squirrel is an altogether different matter. We obviously have done the correct thing and visited a family planning clinic in order to obtain the morning after pill. Unfortunately none were available and I held Ad's hand as he wee'd on a pregnancy test stick. We can now exclusively reveal that Adrian is expecting squittens!!!















Puira is a nice enough town, the people are really friendly and there seems to be a bit more variety of food than in Ecuador. But this is just a place for us to sleep before taking a 14 hour overnight bus ride to Lima where we are catching a flight down to Cusco.

The bus ride is fantastic. We have seats that are like armchairs and that almost fully recline, we are served food and drinks and have videos played. It is like riding business class on a bus.. and it only cost 20 pounds. We catch our flight and finally arrive in Cusco on Thursday after 2 days of travelling.

Cusco is a beautiful town full of terracotta roof-tiled colonial architecture, cobbled streets and surrounded by sensuously undulating mountains. The place has an abundance of gringos, due to its proximity to Machu Picchu, but whilst serving the needs of the tourists hasn't totally sold out and become a one trick pony town. The town is vast and spread out, and up, amongst the surrounding hills. This is the best town we have visited so far with it's beautifully laid out squares and imposing churches. At 3000 metres above sea level the air is a bit thin and it can prove a little difficult to breathe especially when going up hills but, taken easily, even my dried-up, withered old lungs are able to cope. Altitude sickness is a real problem at this height and it is advised to take things slowly for a couple of days, eating only a little and drinking no alcohol. Arriving home drunk that evening after a 10 course meal we started to think that they may have a point. Never mind, have another fag.














Our first day we spend meandering around the windy cobbled streets taking in the atmosphere and observing some of the great buildings, many of which have been built on top of Inca ruin foundations. We find the rail station to book our tickets to go to Machu Picchu which is about 4 hours away. I cant believe the price!! Over 300 Soles (60 squid)!!! Considering you can get a 3 course meal for about 12 Soles and the 14 hour bus ride we had only cost 100 Soles, I think this is a bit of a rip off.... but there is no other way of getting there, they have us by the knackers.

The following day we get up early and go exploring. The town is full of hustle and bustle and we stumble upon a food market. The majority of the undercover stalls are managed by women dressed in tradition dress, selling every herb, spice, vegetable, pulse, bean and meat that you can think of. One woman is selling live frogs in a bucket (the frogs, not her) which she studiously keeps from hopping out with a sharp tape on the escapees nose. We see the cheapest meal being served, at the eating section, that we have seen to date, 2.50 Soles (50p) for 2 courses, unfortunately we have only just eaten. Further down we come across the meat section which is selling every part of a cow that is possible, tripe, brain, tongue, eyeball and nose and mouth (teeth still attached). Not sure what you do with cow nostril but they seemed to be selling well.

In the afternoon we venture up to an Inca ruins just outside of Cusco. At the entrance we are greeted by loads of women dressed in traditional colourful dress walking their Llamas. Ad takes the opportunity to take some snaps. The ruins themselves are a little disappointing but one definitely gets the feel of how this city would have looked back in it's day. The huge stone blocks that are left apparently weigh up to 300 tonnes each, so I don´t suppose they chucked them up in a rush.

Today is Halloween and when we return to the Cusco we are stunned by the amount of people on the street. It feels like the whole of the population is out and about with their kids all dressed up in spooky costumes and carrying little plastic pumpkin lanterns brim full with sweeties. The atmosphere is electric with screams and shouts of excited children. It is obviously a big thing here and it was great to sit in a restaurant above the main square, drinking a few beers and watching the scenes below.

Tomorrow we are up early for what should be one of the highlights of the whole trip..... Machu Picchu.