Hanaqpacha Aguas Calientes

We had about a 30 min drive to the start of the trek at which time i was thinking, why the hell am i doing this??? but then i tend to always do that before a bushwalk and then everything is great. Arriving at our starting point km 82 wasnīt the greatest of visions though....they let 500 people a day on the trek, and most of them were there...

But once we set out all was good, alhtough thereīs a lot of people you do tend ...

... whinged like a Banshi about having to walk too far....I suspect the guide might have liked her to become the trackīs first unfortunate statistic (actually we also saw her the next day in Machu Picchu and she still had a face on her like a bulldog chewing a wasp....some people perhaps should just stay at home!)

We reached Aquas Calientes, had lunch, quickly dumped the bags at our hostel and followed Herber to start climbing Potocusi.

Climbing Potocusi ...

... food, cold beer and excellent lodgings - there was even running water in the communal bathroom...cold of course. Over dinner we sat down and watched Peru vs Venezuala on a small TV with a terrible reception - a very South American experience if ever there was one. Much to the disgust of our hosts, Peru were resoundly beaten and now can't qualify for the forthcoming World Cup.

A fine first day and good fun if ever there was one.

... like this format though and I will likely try a new travelblog for my road trip from SF -> NY



*for the amount of crazy things i ate/drank this trip, there is nothing in the last 48 hours which should have caused this

**this entry alone has taken about one hour and I didnīt even load any pictures. Thatīs not in a cafe with shared line, in a nice city,. you can imagine how draining it is in otherwise to wait 25sec to reset the cursor...

... night and just had fun...everyone was really friendly and i had a great time! We also took a trip into central Lima on my second full day, and saw the changing of the guard ceremony at El Presidenteīs palace. After that we had a quick look at the museum of the Inquisition, which was basically just lots of plastic statues being tortured and making daft faces...hours of fun! Finally we went into Limaīs China Town, which is ...

... arrived at 5am Mexico time, 6am Peru time having not slept for more than 5 minutes. We got a cab to Miraflores and the Inka Lounge hotel which was great, nice staff and nice people there, just three or four so we got to know them well. We slept the first morning, went to the mall in the afternoon which is built into the cliff overlooking the Pacific and eventually after walking right round Miraflores in the muggy heat we found what we were looking for - 2 tickets to the Peru v Chile game at ...

... the side. You will need salt as it will taste bland without it ... or just top it off with everything. With the pork is also a slice of sweet potatoe. It's sooo good! This was also included in the tour. Man alive... I wish I had more time to write more and even upload some pics but time is ticking and I want to give you as much as I can ... For dinner we decided to try Chifa. It came up in our conversation today when we all had lunch. Jose ...

... trends throughout various time periods of the city's history. We visit the historic center of the city: walking up to Plaza de Armas we see the Cathedral of Lima, and then the Monastery of San Francisco,two examples of colonial architecture. In the "Parque de la Muralla" some sections of the Lima City Walls are visible, like examples of medieval Spanish fortifications utilized to defend the city.