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Ancient Cusco
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The bus took awhile to get out of Puno as it kept randomly stopping for Police checks and whilst an old lady with dozens of different shaped boxes got chucked off, me and Sarah were dying to know what was in those damn boxes!! The rest of the bus journey went relatively smoothly only to be interupted by a lady selling a dead animal and chessy bread!! We got a taxi to our room and checked in to our very nice twin room with a damn good shower whoo hoo. We collapsed on the bed for a bit before checking out the joint. We returned to reception to get our foxy flurescent green wristband we had to wear to get in and out of the hostel. Then we hit the bar for a drink and snack before having an early night as both of us still weren't 100%.
The next day we had a much needed lie in before going into town and booking a tour of the city inc ruins just outside and a tour of the sacred valley. We basically had an admin day which onvolved naturally the ATM (cash machine to you and me), bought our tourist ticket which made it cheaper to get into all the ruins and churches, booked our train to Machu Picchu and our bus to Lima. We then got a taxi back to the main square and went to an english bar called the Real McCoys for a taste of home and had a cup of PG Tips and a jacket potato me with chilli, Sarah with cheese and beans oh and HP Sauce - marvellous. We returned to Loki for the all you can eat BBQ and my first beer for days.
After another lie in and another late brekkie, God bless Loki having breakfast till 1pm. We watched Italy v Scotland rooting for Scotland knowing we were probably screwed alas the damn Italians weedled their way through again and Scotland were out!! We then waited for a little bit for the hostel man to show us where the 2nd hand shops were so we could fashion an outfit for the 80's party.We were joined by 4 Irish lads (ain't life grand) and led through the chatic backstreets of Cusco to a 2nd hand shop. There we and the Irish had great fun. I managed to find a sexy bright green skirt and the Irish had great fun picking out the worst shell suits they could find. I managed to find a dodgy half cut red netted top for one of the irish lads that he loved. The irish got some fetching sweat bands forom a stall outside and me a foxy yellow flowery headband rock on. Sarah didn't have any luck on the skirt front but had a cunning plan in reserve. We nipped into a supermarket for further accessories but there was nowt there. At this point we left the irish who went off in search of further accessories and went for a snack and a Guiness at the highest Irish owned bar in the world whoo hoo. After a quick nip on the internet we returned to the hostel to turn ourselves into hot 80's chicks. We both donned our sexy stripy thermal bottoms (acting as stripy 80's leggings), Sarah put her hair in a very high pony tail with multi coulored bands and I spent my time making my green skirt into a fashionable miniskirt to show off my stripy leggings!! As this was going on Sarah kept checking for our laundry and was consistantly told each time to come back in 5 minutes, eventually Sarah returned with only her laundry, mine was missing. I was most distressed as I had washed all my clothes (I don't have many left now) and it had my pink top in which was going to finish my 80s top off perfectly!! We sat in reception for a bit to wait for the laundry watching the staff come and go in their various face painted costume ensembles, one was someone form kiss and the other we think was Axel Rose, he hada mini guitar and everything, bless him. Sarah went and got us both a much needed drink while we waited but eventually our patience wained and we gave up and joined the party. Perhaps now I should take the time to say what e both wore. Obviously we both had on our stripy thermals, I had on my customed made green miniskirt and Sarah her black sarong fashioned into a miniskirt. We both had on pinky coloured tops and Sarah had her hair in a high ponytail, me a foxy floral headband and both had on far too much eye make up. We drank a lot and certainly made up for our weeks sobriety while we were ill. At the party there was a girl dressed as Jimmy Saville equipped with Jim'll fix it badges (she won best costume) and an 80's classic Kylie. The Irish were very entertaining, we were all stood in a circle where they took it in turn to do some very bizarre dance moves to the music. We danced and sang alot that night the best were Bon Jovi's Livin' on a prayer and the Bay watch theme tune, Janey where were you? Alas though to our discust they didn't have Tiffany, sack the DJ now!!!!! I chatted to some girls in relax t-shirts while Sarah went to change her top after getting jelly shots chucked over her!! Towards the end it got messy with beer and other forms of alcohol being chucked in all directions and people skidding all ovwer the wet floor and dangling from the ceilings beams, I am surprised noone did themselves a serious injury!! We jumped in a taxi to the first club but it was very claustrophobic and was playing shocking techno music, we got a taxi to the other club mentioned which turned out to be just at the other side of the damn square!!! We had a brief boogie but the music was still shocking and we were sobering up so at 3am we gave up and headed back to the hostel.
Naturally we had an extremely needed lie in and shower before heading for brekkie. Then we managed a spot of sightseeing looking in St Merced church at the bottom of the hill and had a wander around the square. The other churches were either closed or too far away for 2 people with hangovers. Instead we went back to our fave english cafe for a damn good cup of tea, a spot of dinner and english magazines. Once refreshed we wnet in search of the 12 sided stone, we found a bizarrely shaped wall and drew the conclusion that that was it. We bought some tshirts and went to find the english book shop which alas was closed but at least we knew where it was. We got some supplies from the supermarket and returned to the hostel for a good old laze about.
The next day we managed to get up early and change some travellers cheques and also went to Gringo bills to try and pay for our hostel in Aguas Caliente but got nowhere. We went ot a restaurant and sat on a balcony overlooking the square whilst we had lunch. We then headed to the tour agency to wait for our city tour, and we waited and waited eventually a purple taxi pulls up and a man jumps out and shouts out Sarah's name, they had forgotten us!!! We hopped into the taxi and joined the rest of the group at Santa Domingo which is a convent, church and Inka ruins all rolled into one. Next stop was the cathedral with 2 churches on either side. It was massive, full of mirros and paintings and was built on the sight of an inka temple. One of the paintings was off the last supper equipped with a roasted guinea pig and bottle of hot sauce!! The only disappintment was the hideous giant fake silver alter in the middle of the cathedral!!! We then hoped back onto the bus to the ruins of Sacsayhuaman. The ruins were made up of the hugest stones I have ever seen and were shaped like lightening as that is one of the elements the Inkas worshipped. There wasn't much more of the runis leftasthe spanish nicked most of it!!!! Again our guide was very enthusiastic about his culture alas he was extremely short, shorter than me (Aimee) and we kept losing him. He kept telling us all to come closer and when an American took him literally he was rather taken aback. We climbed up one side of the ruins for a look over them all and the guide insisted on taking a picture of me and Sarah but made rather a shonky job of it. Then we were back in the minibus and drove past the runis of Puca Pucara as the guide said they were rubbish now they had been restored. Instead we stopped at Tambo Machay where we walked up to some ancient Inka fountains, water apparently was very sacred to them. The last ruins we stopped at were Qenko where they worshipped the Toad, naturally they were sacred too but I can't remember why. Here we walked through the runis into a cave where the Inkas mad tghe occasional sacrifice. Onthe way back into Cusco we were made to stop at an Alpaca (related to llamas) clothes shop where we were taught how to tell if something was madefrom Alpaca and then left to browse!!! we were given free Coca tea though. Soon we were back in the square where we had tea and a beer marvellous.
The next day at breakfast I met a girl called Karen who was also doing the sacred valley tour and joined us to walk down to the tour office to get the bus where we were soon joined by what seemed like the rest of Loki hostel!! Soon a lady came and put us on a bus and then we did the usual thing of picking everyone else up from their hotel!! We stopped for ages just outside the city and it was here me and Sarah chatted to Karen and random geordie dude to fill in the time. The first stop was arandom craft market where we got a mere 20 minutes to shop, not nearly enough time!!! After a few stops to admire the views we arrived at our first set of ruins at Pisac. Here we hiked up to the most important neighbourhood and our guide showed us their most important temple, of the sun I think. The views were great and we were given time to explore and take pictures. On the way back we were given chance to look around Pisac market to buy more stuff that we didn't need before being driven to a dodgy buffet lunch. After lunch we headed to the ruins of Ollantaytambo which were amazing, unfortunately the geordie guy had lost histicket so couldn't come in so he left me in charge of his camera which I couldn't work and managed to take no photos for him eek. We hiked up to the top where we saw the 3 edged Inka cross carved in the wall, the sun temple and the ramp where they hauled the stones up the hill, there were still stones lieing there which is how they came to the conclusion that the site wasn't finished it seems they got interupted by the Spanish!! Once again the views were amazing with snow capped mountains in the distance. Next we walked past the watch towers where we strangely had a laugh with a couple of American guys. We were shown the Inca's fountains that they had built, apparently they were very good hydro-engineers!! We then got back on the bus and drove to Chinchero where we had to walk through a market and weren't allowed to shop!! We looked around some ruins by the church and then in the church itself whose inside walls were covered in frescos. Our guide explained the history of the church to us before leading us to an artesan workshop. Here we were shown how they prepared and dyed the fabric with which they weaved after this naturally we were allowed to wander about and look at the products on sale!!! We were glad to get back on the bus as the smell of smoke in that place was beginning to overwhelm us!! We arrived back at the hoatel 1 hour late, grabbed a Twix and some water and went to bed as we had to be up at 4am the next day to go to Machu Picchu.
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