Cuzco

( View form our bed out the window )


We flew into Cuzco on an early morning flight from Lima. The mountains that surround the city seemed a bit close for me. Don´t get me wrong, I am a great flier and thought the view was incredible. A lot of aircraft have speed breaks on them, these are used to wash speed off a plane once it has reached the ground. The speed breaks on this plane were flaps of aircraft skin on top of the wings. I am guessing that because Cuzco is at high altitude, 3300m, and the air being thin, we were coming in at a million miles an hour to stay aloft. The result. The speed breaks needed to be used while still in the air, just as we were ready to touchdown, causing the aircraft to become a bit unstable. I know this.... because I was sitting on the bloody thing, looking out the window saying to myself 'gee that´s a bit funny using speed breaks while in the air' So we made it to Cuzco. It is a pretty little city, plenty of things to do and plenty of things to see.

( A Cusco street near our hostel )

On day 3 when we final had enough courage to venture outside the hostel we saw these things. We were trying to acclimatise to the altitude of the area, so were planning to have ten days before we hit the Inca Trail.
When Jo told me we were going to Sth America, I told here the only thing I wanted to do was walk the Inca Trail, in hindsight i should have been a little bit more specific, like walk the Inca Trail and walk around Macchu Picchu. Yes that would have done, but i am getting ahead of myself. We went on the city tour, I don´t recommend it, too rushed and with a little knowledge you can do all the same things at a better pace on your own. If however you find yourself with one day in Cuzco to spare, I would suggest the sacred valley tour, we visited some great ruins and the market at Pisac for Jo.

( Pisac Market )

For any guys out there, you only spend forty minutes at the market, which is a shame really, it is not nearly enough time to try everything on, believe me. On the bus you get to travel through

the mountains, and can see to glaciers as well, not being used to this was quite novel for us, Jo seemed equally impressed, until she fell asleep 3 minutes into the bus ride home. She couldn't say she was tired from shopping. So Cuzco was great, great food, great shoe shine boys and great people, trying to sell you a massage every couple of meters or finger puppets or postcard or..... you get the picture, a very safe place, well I felt safe, after all I was a good head taller than everyone esle around me.

( ruins at Pisac )