we are having a fab time i cant get over how nice and beautifl Peru is! i think everyone should come here!

the sunburn has stopped hurting but its still crispy on the shoulders! not good! we have having a chilled out day today! doing our washing (well thats a lie we have given it to the laundry which is costing like a pound a kilo!!! so not worth even doing it ourselves) the weather is a mixture of everything we have had cold days, hot days and very wet days it si crazy!!!

we have jsut got back from a 3 day trip where we went to Ollantaytambo where on the way we stopped at Pisac an Inca ruin which is loads of terrances which they grow potatoes and veg at diffrent levels to see which grow best at diffrent alltitudes also to stop land slides as they are built into the mountains! Then we went to a village in the mountains which the woman have stalls for knitted and woven products to sell to the tourists! it was beautiful to see the woman working together to firstly sort out the track as it had been raining and if we could not get along they would not earn anything! then they take it in turn to have stands! i got a little carried away and brought a scarf in the Peruvian colours in Lama wool and some gloves! they are so soft! they showed us them spinning the wool which they can do with out thinking and are doing it every spear minute they have! also how the die the theads with natural materals found in the mountain! it was very interesting! they were also weaving!

we moved off to a Corn beer factory, which is there loca drink! i was in heaven as it tastes a bit like cider!! yummy!

Last stop of the day was in Ollantaytambo at another Inka runi! this one was the most interesting by far as they had not finished it so you got to see the working process which made it all clearer! the carved every stone to interlink with the others there is not cerment or anything to hold them together! today was a wet day so was not the best but still a fun day!

Wednesday 18th Feb

Court an early train to Aguas Calienes, which is a town souly for Machu Picchu. we went to some thermal springs which were not what the sounded time but was still lovely and warm and relaxing in the rain! yes today it rained again! then i sorted out my bank card by phoning off a pay phone as it would be been silly on my mobile! the man sorted it out and i think it was jsut because i have not informed them that i was leaving the counrty they blocked it! then i had to talk to customers servises which took forever to get through to to explain i was out of the country for 7 months and hopefully fingers crossed it is all sorte now! well it is working so should be ok!

Thursday 19th Feb

Best day so far even if we did have to get up at 5 in the morning! the weather was perfect!we when to Machu Picchu!! all i have to day is FANTASTIC!!!! out of the would it is crazy!!! now i am going to bore you with some facts!! heehee yes i have been learning. ok Machu Picchu would of been home to around 800 to a thousand people which compared to the size of it is not very many i dont think! it was built between 1430 and 1532 but was not finiseh becasue of the Spanish

and the best stry so far is not only does Padinton Bear come from Peru but coke cola was originaly from Peru. the story goes that someone was drinking coca tea ( which is cocaine leaves) and though i wonder what it will taste like fizzy so added gas and this was what coke was originally. an american came over and wanted to by the paten for it but the man was dieing of cancer so money was no good to him he jsut asked for the Peru colours to be on the cans so that is why they are red and white! i dont know how true this is but i like the story!

there is a mountain that everyone climbs next to Machu Picchu to the the perfect photo but they only let 400 people up there! even at 9.45 in the morning we missed out on this which was typical! but the guide told us about another mountain `machu Picchu mountain`he had only climbed it 4 times but said it give better photos! we were not sure if he was saying that to make is feel happier of what but thought we would give ti a go!!! Oh my god i nearly died! it was so steep and so many steps it was crazy! we were running out of time so did not quite make it to the top but put our best effort in and were so close!! it got to the point that it was to stippy under foot and there was nothing next to us! so we decided to turn back! two of the group made it to the top but said it was scary so we were glad we turned back seeing as we dont like hights!! btu the view was amazing! on the way back down a came across a snake and screamed like a girl! everyone did not knwo what was going on and i felt pretty studip but least it scared it off!! yuk yuk yuk! thinking about it still makes me shudder!!!

we had a 1.5 hour train journey followed by a 1.5 windy bus trip back to cusco! ti was amazing to see the snow on the top of the andies!!

After a nap we all went out for food as a group which was lovely the plan was to go drinking and dancing but everyone was zonked from the crazyily busy day so we all had an early night!