Cusco

Our first impression of Cusco was that we loved it! We caught a taxi with a couple at the bus station from Holland and Estonia to make the fare cheaper. We checked in to our hostel and cooked some eggs and ate some mango we had bought. I'm enjoying eating lots of tasty mango and avocado out here as it's so cheap! I then skyped my lovely mother to wish her a happy birthday and she was looking gorgeous as ever! She was chilling with the dog, but it sounded like she was going to have a nice evening at Helen's.

We stumbled across a tiny vegetarian restaurant for lunch and sat down with a local who we got chatting to. He was very friendly and he said he had family in Germany. I started speaking German to him, but his vocab was very basic. He was a local architect and gave us advice on what food and drinks to try in Peru. We also confirmed what guinea pig was in Spanish so we could avoid it!

Spending a few days in Cusco before doing the Inca trail is a good thing to adjust to the altitude a bit. My thoroat is very sore at the moment (hopefully I'm not ill) and I've had headaches, so we'll see how it goes... We wandered around the town, all the squares in Cusco and up some back streets. It was all really interesting and architecturally impressive with cobbled streets, arches and really ornate balconies. We then decided to go to the chocolate museum that had been recommended to us by the English couple from Arequipa as there were dark clouds and it was starting to rain a little. I think that's the first time we've seen rain since New Zealand, even if it did last about two minutes! Haha.

Mmmmm the smell of chocolate! We tried some cocoa tea which was really nice, a cocoa bean which was very bitter and some chocolate jam which was very tasty. We bumped into the couple we'd shared a taxi with that morning too. We keep bumping into lots of people in Cusco. It's nice as you know you're visiting the best places, and seeing some familiar faces!

We had another disaster with food that evening, after organising to meet the five Australians. We got chatting to people in our dorm and Jen cut my fringe, so we turned up just outside the restaurant called 'Quinoa' twenty minutes late. Laura and Alice were walking down the street towards us and said they were lost. A guy from a hotel on that road said the restaurant was closed that evening so we wondered what the other three had done. We decided to wander around and find somewhere to eat and after struggling we went to their hostel and ate there for convenience. However, our food was forgotten about (once again) and after an hour of waiting we ate our 'okay' food. It turned out the other three had knocked on the door on the closed restaurant and had a great meal. They had been the only ones in there and the woman cooking hadn't planned on opening that evening. We might go the tonight as we had food jealousy!

Today we visited San Pedro market just around the corner of our hostel. It sold everything and anything. There was clothing, material, loads of cheap street food, veg, fruit, tea and pulses. We stopped at a juice stool and the woman there made us two glasses of mango juice. It was so yummy and we got our daily dose of mango. We might go back after the Inca trail and get an orange and passion fruit juice drink! Think we'll also get some street food and sit with the locals in the market. Looking forward to it!

We then went to the Plaza Regocijo to begin the free walking tour. Our group was absolutely massive. Our guide, Luis, gave us tips on things like public transport, a history of the Incas and some samples of local food. It was really good and informative. We also went up to a great viewpoint of the entire city of Cusco and overall had a great time looking around and exploring side streets. It's a bit hilly in Cusco and I think we struggled with some of the steeps. I think the Inca Trail is going to be tough! We meet our group at 5pm in the hotel (yay, hotel!!) so Jen and I are hoping they're going to be good fun! Crossing my fingers!