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Next morning after breakfast and checking out, we took a taxi to the Loki hostel. We were keen to stay in Cusco for a while since we had a really good feel for the place and hadn't had a proper chance to explore it. The hostel wasn't far but it was uphill and with heavy bags and the amount of walking we'd done over the past week, we thought we deserved the 50p taxi ride! On arriving at the hostel, we were told that we'd have to wait until 1pm to see if there were any beds free. It is a really good system at this hostel and actually just a brilliant place overall. It's run by backpackers and they understand that you don't always know how long you want to stay for or that your bus isn't until later on, therefore you don't have to tell them how long you're staying for and as long as you check out by 1pm you can leave your bags there all day if you want. You can also leave them there, even if you're not sure if there's a room for you., which is what we did. We then went to the internet café down the road as we wanted to find out about changing our flights. We were meant to be flying out that Friday from Santiago but wanted more time in South America. Unfortunately when we called there was only one seat available for the 3rd November and then a wait list as the next flight wasn't until the 15th. We'd actually been told the 8th previously and had jointly decided to skip Fiji so we could stick with the original dates for NZ and Oz but when we'd tried to book them we were told they weren't available. Kate kindly said I could go on the 3rd and she'd be put on the wait list as she'd been to Fiji and was considering doing a volunteer project with James, who we had met in Buenos Aires. Just as we were arranging all of this, who should walk passed the internet place but James! He did a double take as like us, he had no idea we were going to be in Cusco at the same time.
We went back to the hostel to find that they had room for us and so they showed us around. The building is one of Cusco's oldest perched on a hill overlooking the city. The owners have restored it really well and it has a lovely courtyard area with hammocks, the bar is really big and all the bunk beds are huge with proper duvets and pillows! It's things like that (and hot showers, which they had plenty of) which really make a good hostel. After saying hi to the other boys, Kate, myself, and Eveline (the Dutch girl from the Inca Trail) went to one of the many artisan markets and this is pretty much what we did for the next 3 days! There was so much stuff and it couldn't all be looked at in a day (well that was my excuse). We also wandered around the city and marvelled at all the buildings as well as the 12-sided Inca stone. There were so many lovely things to buy and they were all so cheap I think I must have bought up the entire country's reserve of alpaca wool.
We arranged to meet the lads for dinner that night as well as Ozzie our tour leader and the Swedish couple. We weren't in the mood for authentic cuisine so we headed to Jack's, a place run by an Ozzie that did huge portions of really good food. Afterwards to continue the theme of untraditionalness we went to an English bar called Subwy where we introduced the boys to pisco sours. Unfortunately they weren't very well made and the boys thought we were trying to poison them with raw egg nasty potions. They quickly got back on the beers….
We spent most of our time just relaxing in Cusco as the hostel was such a nice place to be and we'd been doing so much rushing aound it was nice to stay in one place for a week. WE took a trip to the non-tourist market where we weren't hassled every two minutes as we were in the artisan markets where the stall owners took to reciting every item you showed the slightest bit of interest in. We both invested in a pair of pumps that weren't as grotty as our walking shoes and made us feel less like travellers and we also bought memory sticks and DVDs to start the mammoth task of downloading all our photos to send home. Jon (a guy we'd met in Brazil and see again in Cusco) came with us andwas chuffed to find a pair of clip on sunnies to wear over his glasses -they were decidedly naff but he still managed to pull them off. Whilst I was at the market, I tried but failed to take a stealthy photo of a cooked guinea pig that was being served up, teeth and all. I was definitely not going to try it, especially as someone had said it tasted like rat (god knows how they knew that). I was also reluctant to try the llama as some people had been ill when they'd tried it. I half expected the country special at Mcdonalds to be a McLlama burger or 6 McGuinea pig nuggets.We did a pub quiz at the hostel that night, which the boys took very seriously and they said it was because they always seemed to come second. After winning every round, they lost it in the final round by half a point and were 'always the bridesmaid and never the bride' as James put it. If only they'd listened to me when I told them Cuba was the biggest Caribbean island and not the Dominican Republic…
I'd bought that much stuff at the markets for presents and myself that I had to send it home. We took it all to the post office which all seemed a bit too easy and apparently it would take 4 weeks to send home…I said a quiet goodbye to it and will be extremely surprised if it makes it home. (UPDATE: It made it home!!! In less than 4 weeks -Royal Mail should take a leaf out of Peru's book). That evening was a mad hatters party at the hostel where you had to make your own hat. There was a table set up with loads of stuff to make hats out of and at first nobody went over to it but as the evening wore on and happy hour kicked in more and more ridiculous hats were appearing on peoples heads. We ended the night at Mama Afrikas, a club in town. Poor Will had to leave early though to get a flight to Lima. Basically the lads had been to Machu Picchu that day, climbed the actual mountain called Machu Picchu and Will had put his rucksack on the ground. It then started to roll down the steep mountainside gathering speed and they'd all looked on horrified. Stu said it was like it happened in slow motion and none of them could do anything to stop it. The guide they were with said nobody could get down there to retrieve it and that it would be stuck in the ravine forever (I reckon a long lost inca is currently walking around listening to the Arctic Monkeys). It had everything of importance in it including his passport, credit cards, and ipod. He had to get a flight back to Lima to get a new passport issued, what a nightmare.
Whilst in Cusco, we also met up with Melly who owns the Milhouse hostel in Buenos Aires. She recognised us from staying there and we spent the next couple of days with her. She's currently opening another hostel in BA and said if we ever need a job to go and see her, so there's an opportunity!
We decided to leave Cusco on Sunday evening and after visiting each bus stand for the best deal, we decided to splash out on full reclining seats as it was a night bus. We were sad to leave Cusco but definitely ready to go and see something else. Randomly we had picked Ica, which was neither really on our way or somewhere we'd previously thought of but we were definitely glad we went.
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