Don Carlos Cusco Hotel

... , full of diamonds shinning over us.  We all retrieved our luggages and got off the train.  Once outside the station, Carlos, our faithful driver, was waiting for us.  Safely, he drove us to our hotel, the Novotel, our home for ...

... for breath in the world's highest capital city We arrived in La Paz after a pretty grueling bus journey, checked into our hotel and went for a wander.  Doing anything at that altitude is just hard work and that includes eating, sleeping and ...

... olds) for the first time.  Topic was city buildings! 2. Pulling Willie, a Cusqueno (man from Cusco) in a nightclub on night 2! 3. Riding on the back of a Carlos' motorcycle (some of you might know my passion for them). 4. Sipping my first Pisco Sour ...

... 14-day trip ... courtesy of our tour company, Active South America.  Our room stunk of sewerage and even our guide Carlos recoiled at the stink.  He summoned the manager who brought along his bottle of spray to clear the smell, explaining that ...

... Next day we transferred to the Hostel Centenario across the other side of town, where we met our Active South America tour guide, Carlos.  The hostel was to be our base whenever we returned from a trip and it proved to be a less than satisfactory ...

... ;the indigenoius people to include hidden Inka idols when the Spanish colonised the area.  Then it was back to Cusco where we met up with Carlos for dinner in the San Blas and then to bed in preparation for our 5.30am pick up for the Inca Trail ...

... for a few soles. The Peruvian people both there and in Lima were very friendly, so unlike the Venezuealians (with the exception of Carlos & Co), with its dodgy Caracus taxi driver that stopped us in the middle of a slum demanding more money and then ...

... ; Inca culture.  Lots of original Inca buildings remain and the Spanish architecture built around it.  The mountain surroundings don't hurt either. The next day I woke up early to catch a taxi from Cuzco to Ollataytambo; train from Ollataytambo ...

... worth it! After the trek the 3 of us each had a severe case of rancid feet and treated ourselves to a pedicure on the streets of Cusco. An hour of exfoliation later, we had dropped a shoe size (lol) and headed for the clubs again! We spent our last night ...

... o do everything.             I have been thinking a lot about the Chacmool story (Carlos Fuentes) that we read last year in literature class.  I think it’s because we have been to so many ...

... .  The next morning we got up before 8 and rented motorcycles. After running errands and eating breakfast at the lovely restaurant Don Carlos; the hotel we had wanted to stay at but just could not afford, we jumped on the bikes. Jimmy and I were on ...

... to book our trip to the Floating Islands and Isla Taquile for the following day. Then Carlos took us on a walk through the main streets of Cusco, peppering the conversation with bits of knowledge and observations, every 2 minutes him being greeted by ...

... Revash at around 10 p.m. The three have made arrangements for another tour in the area tomorrow. In the process, they have met Carlos who manages the hotel, oversee its tours, or both. In any case, he has broken out his guitar and a bottle of licor de ...

... up to well with its huge number and variety of traditional fiestas, dances and music. The city, whose full name is San Carlos de Puno, was founded in 1668 following the discovery of nearby silver mines. Prior to this, Puno had been a small stopping ...

... to a restaurant a block away. Aside from some awkward silences due to the language barrier, we had a nice, casual dinner together. Juan Carlos was incredibly sweet and insisted on paying for me...my meal was only 3 bucks, but still. We then went to this ...

... a cab, we'd ask how much it was...that's what the guidebook said to do because they don't have meters.  We didn't this time because the hotel had arranged it and we figured there was a standard price.  Well...apparently this driver figured ...

... Friday. With Chris and Harriet, Clive, Norm, Suraj, Brian and Mary, Claire and Gareth, Keith and May Nah, and our guide Carlos, we all ended up at a local café-restaurant that offered great coffee and great food. Two hours of trivia questions later, we ...

... pass that spot. It was a LOT of fun!! All in all the 4X4 journey took about 2 hours. We then reached a town called Peurto Carlos that is divided by a river. So we crossed by boat and got a taxi (a car this time) onwards. The taxi driver´s wife ...