26/7/11 Cusco
Im really glad I flew from Colombia to Peru, it has saved me nearly a week in travel time so the few dollers extra to fly were well worth it. Cusco is located near the Andes mountain range and has an elevation of 3,400 meters above sea level. I... CANT.... BREATH. God almighty, its so high and the air is sooooo thin you take 3 steps and you are out of breath. Altitude sickness is a huge thing here, you can take tablets for it but as I came from Bogota which is pretty high (2600 meters above sea level) I didnt bother.
Cusco is a major stop on the Gringo trail as it was the capital of the Inca Empire and it is from here that you do the famous Machu Picchu treck!
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| Peruvian & Inca Flag |
I arrived in Cusco at 6am, seriously early. I had my hostel booked so I headed straight to it. THE WILD ROVER is a famous Irish party hostel in SA. And bloody hell did it live up to its name!! You do not stay here if you intend to ever get a good nights sleep! There is a bar in the hostel that can be heard from most rooms and there are always people in and out of the room at all hours, whether they are heading out on early morning trecks or coming in from a night out!!! Check in wasnt till 2pm which was a pain in the ass so I hung around, got some food and booked my Inca Jungle Treck for the following Saturday. I slept most of the day as I had stayed up all night in the airport the night before and was pretty tired.
Turned out I was sharing my room with a load of 21 year old Brazilian lads who were all nice lads. Headed to the bar with them tonight and had a few drinks but nothing too mad. One of the rules is not to drink on your first night at altitude, so I was a good girl and followed the rules!
27/7/11
Eh yea I may as well have gone out and got pissed last night as the 3 beers I had gave me one of the worst hangovers ever!!! I shouldnt have had any at all..... I eventually draged myself out of bed and headed off out to walk around cusco. Beautiful, beautiful place. The weather here is weird, the sun is shining but its crisp and cold. Everything is uphill and down hill so walking around was hard. It was gas looking around and watching all the gringos huffing and puffing around the place.
Im ashamed to say I had a Maccy D's :( Im walking around this beautiful square and there it is in front of me, I couldnt resist! Plus they do a chicken big Mac here so that hooked me. I pretty much chiled out for the rest of the day and explored the city. Took it handy tonight and was in the leaba early.
30/7/11
Probably one of the best days of my trip so far just beacuse I accidently bumped into an old friend!
So Im up early and head down the stairs to the lobby, laptop in hand. I look up as Im halfway down the stairs and whos sitting on a bean bag in front of me but MARK MULLOOLY! He looks up and shouts then I start to scream and we cause a whole lot of comotion. For those of you who dont know, I went to college with Sparky and we spent an epic summer after our finals together in NY. I knew Mark was travelling SA but I had NO IDEA that we would be in Cusco at the same time! It was amazing and great to see someone who I actually knew already! Double excellent was the fact that Mark & his mate he was travelling with John had also booked the Inca Jungle Treck for Saturday!!!!!!
There was no escaping it now.... CARNAGE was about to insue!!
Messy night to say the least .... rum and coke + altitude = early night for Aids :P
28/7/11
PERU INDEPENDANCE DAY
Hangovers all round this morning so another trip to mac donalds was on the cards when we all eventually managed to get out of bed. We spent the day today chiling out on the main square. Myself and Emma (an English girl we had hooked up with) got hair braids which I LOVE!!
We wandered around and hit a few random museums and then we went in search of Peruvian flags. Wild Rover was throwing a special party that night in honour of Independance so we wanted to get kitted out for the event. You would think that being in Peru a Peruvian flag would be easy to come across.... Nope of course not! We walked for ages to try and find them but its on these random adventures that you always run into the coolest stuff. We stumbeled upon a religious prade and traditional dancing that was fun to watch and follow for a while. The traditions which the people here have a so far removed from anything we wold see at home its amazing!
We eventually managed to get our hands on some flags in the local market and headed back to WR to paaaaaaaaaaaarty!
A crazy night was had by all. I shall spare the details but it involved: flags, facepaint, nightclubs,
fountains, casinos and cats!!!
I LOVE CUSCO.....
Getting in a 6am does generally mean sleeping for the day which is what I did. My self John and Mark did make it out of the hostel to get food at one point but thats as about as productive as the day got. Tomorrow was Machu Picchu and we were being picked up at 7am to get going.
So an early night.
