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5 relaxing days were spent in Cusco giving our bodies time to adjust to the Altitude. Drinking lots of Coca tea and sucking on Coca candy which is a great cure for altitude sickness. Widely used by the Andean communities, especially the agricultural workers who chew the leaves to help ward off hunger and pain. With a vast array of great restaurants, bars, cinemas and cosy fireplaces we were in no rush to leave. Also discovered the ONLY authentic Indian restaurant in Peru where we sampled Paratha and chai tea, Dal was in heaven but did comment "It was nice but it doesnt beats moms" ...awwww!
We found a budget hostal just a couple of blocks from the main plaza. They had 2 small cadged budgies on the reception area that managed to stink the whole place out on a daily basis!
Dal treated herself to a Shiatsu Massage whilst I lay on a bed nearby enjoying the relaxing music. We were offered a coca reading (apparently Shaman can predict your future by reading leaves?? This is their equivalent to our tarot card readings) we werent entirely convinced, plus he couldnt speak english so kindly declined.
Cusco retains alot of its original architecture, more noticeable were the Inka walls lining around the centre, amazingly the Spanish didnt destroy them!
Had an experince in a restaurant where a owner blatantly sold a bag of cocaine to a user whilst we were eating our food, not so cool!
Stumbled across an Irish pub, that was empty and had a pool table so we spent an afternoon leisurely potting balls and dancing around the table, amusing ourselves to no end. And of course Maz won 2-1 :)
Visited a community cafe where all profits go to helping the local kids, did our bit by ordering speciality gourmet coffees that contained alcohol, not so good on an empty stomach. Both left feeling very tipsy but sobering up in a nearby yummy vegetarian restaurant!
Sunday we decided to visit a small village called Pisac, situated in the Scared Valley and well known for its Sunday Market. We made our way to the bus terminal where we had a rickety 1 hour journey offering some amazing views. The Market itself was so big that it would of taken a whole day to see everything though alot of the stalls were very similar and became quite repititive after a couple of hours so we ducked into a cafe for a cup of chai tea to rest our tired feet. Our favourite part were the food stalls, so colourful with a vast array of different fruits and veg and old ladies cooking up traditional dishes that would make any mouth salivate with their delicious aromas. We enjoyed Choclo (peruvian sweetcorn) with chilli and cheese and sampled the cheese, tomato and basil empanadas, baked in the huge outdoor clay ovens giving it a mild smokey flavour.
We managed the avoid the tour operators and visited the local train station to book our tickets to Macchu Picchu. This involved catching a bus to another town situated in the Sacred Vally called Ollaytambo. From there we would catch the night "backpacker train" to Aguas Calientes (town situated below Macchu Picchu) which worked out at half the price we would of spent with an agency! Excited with anticipation we had an early night in preparation to visit one of the 7 natural wonders of the world.
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