Cusco – Taking It Easy

So here in Cusco, cars do drive on the right side of the road, but most roads are one way. Interesting…

I walked through the city this morning to photograph the streets, plazas and cathedrals. This city, even on only Day 3, is beginning to feel so comfortable. Like home. There is nto that much to do. I feel we amy spend the majority of our energy here partying than anything else – aside from Machu Picchu. We should have only spent 2-3 days maybe instead of 6. Oh well. We are going White Water Rafting tomorrow. Then tomorrow night, big night out. Alex, Dominic and Sophie are back for their last night in Cusco before we all go our separate ways. Alex is heading home to Aus. Dom & Sophie – off to Lake Titicaca and Bolivia and us… on to Machu Picchu and on from there. (you will see in the next blog how that night turned out)

I really miss having even slightly nice-looking hair.

Maybe I am supposed to be all rough and tough and rugged, and not care about my hair. But I do, just a little bit… hehe. And I miss wearing clothes that are another color than white.

WHAT IVE LEARNED – Backpacking is not camping (haha, youll see how funny that statement is in the next blog) or living off the earth. It is acceptable to bring cute clothing, so long as it is casual, yes. But it does not mean you have to wear the same pyjama like pants and plain white tshirt everyday… whoops!!

JAN 15 – CUSCO – Looking Back

We went to the market yesterday afternoon. Bought a zillion pairs of earrings for 2 soles/pair. Bopught a scarf, some gifts and we each bought Alpaca sweaters. Or, jumpers as our Aussie friends would say. Softest, most beautiful sweaters ever!! I could live in them. I got a leather bracelet that has CUSCO, PERU etched into it.. And finally, a bag of cocoa leaves!!! (yes Mom!)

After shopping, we head down to the plaza to the supermarket and picked up pasta, sauce and a bottle of Argentian Cab Sauv for 12 soles. We made dinner (aka Savannah made dinner and I sough out a bottle opener and poured our glasses) in the hostel kitchen – a practice we have decided to do far more often in order to save ourselvses for bigger and better purchases… like earrings and cocoa leaves, haha. We enjoyed our pasta and wine in the TV room while crying our eyes out to FORREST GUMP (and when I say we I mean just me that cried).

We finally tried our cocoa leaves!! Not sure how much of an effect they had though… hard to tell after a few glasses of wine. Our roomie – Pete (we finally cracked him! He was uber anti-social the first day but we got him chating and turns out to be a great guy.. and from Aus of course. He actually reminds me ridiculously of Jason Hamilton, haha.) told us that our tongue may go a little numb which it did, but thats about it.

Savannah finally got on a computer here – which is the worst part about this hostel (you will find out in the next blog there are worst parts about it…). There are only 2 computers in the huge hostel and they are ALWAYS busy.

Oh! And I lost a freaking bra strap! How does that even happen?? I guess at some point it just fell off so now I have one dysfunctional bra which is a pretty big deal when you only packed 2!!!!

Anyways, off to get ready for our big day tomorrow and rest up.

NOW… SINCE IM WRITING IN PAST TENSE, I CAN TELL YOU THAT THE NEXT DAY… WAS A CRAZY ADVENTURE. Dont have time to write about it now…. we are off to Paddys pub… the highest Irish pub in the world in terms of altitude to have a pint before back at our hostel (THE POINT… foreshadowing) to get ready for tomorrow – off to Machu Picchu. Our train departs at 630am and we have to be there by 530am so it will be a freaking early start. Ah! Its also POURING RAIN right now in Peru… so the walk there will be interesting Im sure.

Lots of love to everyone! Stay tuned! I will try to update again later tonight. If not, back Sunday night from Machu Picchu!!! Wish us luck (which we will need because of the strike thats going on…. more sneak peak to the next blog).