Eco House Residencial Cusco

... to them, although one of them found it interesting to start gnawing at my shoe. Our second to last stop was at the huge Inca complex of Raqchi, where they had done a great job of restoring several of the granaries. It was fascinating walking in my first Inca ruin. However, the important thing to remember is that while the Incas of Peru have gotten all the fame, they actually only reigned for about 150 years until they were beaten and many of their buildings ...

... een tourist card. Deze kaart geeft toegang tot 16 verschillende musea en ruïnes. Eenmaal we de kaart in handen hadden, hebben we de musea bezocht. Deze waren vrij verschillend, over de algemene geschiedenis van Cusco, archeologische vondsten, hedendaagse kunst, poppen (museo de Arte Popular) en dansshows. De meeste musea zijn vrij klein, maar aangezien we toch 5 dagen in Cusco 'vast' zitten voor we onze trail kunnen doen, kunnen we evengoed onze kennis wat bijschaven ...

... not make it for sunrise. Do not let this disappoint you as Machupicchu is marvellous in itself!



IMPORTANT NOTE: PERSONAL Inca Trail PORTERS

Our Porters carry a maximum load of 15kg, but we kindly ask you to not exceed your 7kg stated allowance as we need to adhere to the INC regulations and more importantly not damage the health and welfare of our Porters! Please note that if you want to hire a personal porter you need ...

... not accepted..going to try again someday) We all went back to the dance club i was at a couple nights before. It took a looong time to get out of bed the next day but it was my last day in Peru so i couldn't spend it entirely in bed! Walked around in search of were to eat.. down to 50 soles left...found a Pollo a la brasa place which the only Peruvian guy i know at home told me i must eat. So i walked in and was the only tourist and it was just all chaos, i didnt know ...

... what you get with cheap tours but they all seemed to have the same arrangements as us. After he left I had had enough and certainly did not fancy the Wayna Picchu climb so I gave my ticket to Pedro, who had finally arrived but who would also choose not to climb anyway, and left the group to it as I went back down to the town to relax for a couple of hours. On the bus down there was a guy in front who was really struggling with dehydration and altitude, he looked out of it, vomitting and ...

... that lived in Sydney but were South African and Israeli. I sat next to a guy from London, who it turned out had the same exact bday as me, which never ceases to freak me out since now I have met like 7 people with the same bday as me. We all talked about backpacking and traveling, which was awesome since I learned some stuff from them and gave them lots of info about the Peruvian Jungle. It was an enjoyable but long train ride.

· I took a taxi back to ...

... lessons today, which have already made a noticeable difference. I have class from 9 in the morning to 1 in the afternoon; my class consists of myself, the teacher, a very nice woman and a very good teacher, and my only classmate, Gwen, a middle-aged woman from Canada, who is quite nice but very much likes to talk, not always in a way pertaining to anything necessary or relevant. It´s funny, the teacher (whose name I have forgotten.. I´m not good with foreign names ...

... was necessary to get some info about seeing Machu Picchu so I endured sitting through about 5 variations on the same theme: the Salkantay trek. This is the most popular "alternative" route to see the ruins and apparently takes in some impressive scenery.

But I didn't commit to anything immediately. Instead, I meandered about looking at the plazas and checking out some nice cafes and, of course, all the touristy shops. There's an incredible amount of crafts on sale ...

... with me for a couple hours while I shopped. With her there - I got a much better deal than as a ´gringa´ =)

Sunday, was a nice relaxing day. Sat in the sunshine and studied my Spanish.

My typical day while volunteering is getting up about 7.30 (BLAH!), eat breakfast and walk to the bus (combi). Ride the bus to the local market where the school is located. Try to help the kids, with my ...

A reasonably early start, we only have 200km to travel to Cuzco. Once again it is a sunny day but still quite cool.
We start climbing back into the Andes, twisting and turning up the mountain. Young G stops complaining his bike is handling badly, we find the rear wheel bearing has worn out. Find a safe sunny place to work, he has spares so a quick change and 40 minutes later we are on our way again ...