Hola Amigos!!!

Well when I last left off we were just getting the bus to Lima and we paid a few quid extra to go in the first class bit as it was 21 hour journey and it was amazing! We had seats that practically turned into beds and loads of room, there was only 9 of us in the whole section. They had films on with English subtitles and not too loud which was good and they brought us a hot meal for dinner and then it was lights out and I slept like 9 hours on and off which is pretty good for a bus. In the morning we got a roll and cake for breakfast and a cup of clove tea. We stopped so anyone could go for a number 2 and it looked pretty minging someone was just going in and then a kid would come along and throw water on the floor and then the next person went, quite minging lol! Chloe’s fact about 95% of wealth going to 5% of the population looks about right form the moment you get outside Lima the rest of the country looks like a dump in comparison and child workers, loads of stray dogs, I don’t know how they breed but they are the cutest strays I have ever seen. We arrived In Cusco and got the taxi to our accommodation which is £3 each a night for a private room, there are holes in the walls and floors and the shower is a cold drip but it will do - beggars cant be choosers and all that. We had a shower and then went out to find somewhere to get our laundry as we are running low, we got that put in and had a wander round the town, our hostel is half a block from the plaza which is really nice, surrounded by old buildings and the cathedral, quite like Lima. After a few minutes of walking you are exhausted as the town is 3360 metres above sea level which is almost the same height I did my skydive from so the air is very thin and it gives you less oxygen resulting in dizziness, sore heads and feeling a bit off. We then booked our next couple of buses and got a bit conned but have now learnt that you can haggle bus prices too We found an Irish pub and had stew and mash with veg which was amazing!! It is so touristy here with everyone visiting Machu Pichhu and you can tell everyone tries to con you and you get asked every 2 steps if you want a massage which is quite annoying and its full of backpackers and quite annoying really, we have found the less visited places to be a lot better.. After we just read our books and loaded up on clothes to sleep in and the hostel had like 3 blankets each and we had our sleeping bags too and we needed all of them, it was not the comfiest night though as the pillow was like a rock and the blankets were so heavy I was practically pinned to the bed and there was drunk people coming back all through the night.

The next day we were up at 5am for our trip to Machu Picchu but I think we were a bit confused and got up an hour earlier than we needed to. While Craig was in the loo I was just reading the guide book and saw that it said you had to have tickets for Machu Picchu in advance and that you should get them at Aglientes Calientes or somewhere like that but in the book it said that was in Lima or you could get them from a tour operator but it was 6am so they were all closed as it was Sunday too. So we got a taxi to Poroy to the train station with our fingers crossed and luckily the woman said we could get them at the other end, we were so glad as we paid $200 US for our train tickets and didn’t want them to be a waste even thought we thought that was a bit expensive especially as it didn’t include entry fees. We had a 4 hour jammed in train journey to the town at the foot of Machu Picchu, it was not as we expected, we thought there was just the ruins but there is a whole little town with markets and everything. We managed to get student tickets for the entrance fee with our out of date student cards so that was another £14 each and then we had lunch and that was another £12 and then we found we had to get a little shuttles bus up to the ruins so we went to get on it and it then se said we had to get a ticket and that was another £10, they don’t half know how to monopolise on their main attraction! The bus up was I think about the scariest thing ever, it was a winding gravel road up the side of a mountain with next to no barriers and two way traffic, not my idea of fun. At the top we had a bit of a hairy moment when the woman must have been confused with the out of date-ness but didn’t know what it meant so asked us our date of births and then our ages and Craig said 28 as he seems to think that’s how old he is and I have keep having to tell him he isn’t yet lol! We did get in and thank God as I think at that point I would have flipped. Once we got inside it was amazing and so worth it. The ruins and backdrop is absolutely stunning, the photos (of which there are over 100 lol) don’t do it justice at all. The ruins were all built by the Inca’s before the Spanish came to the continent, its amazing how intact they all still are and how they managed to build such structures way back then and at that altitude too. We had a good hike about and looked at all the ruins, there were some bits where you could so easily just fall off it was quite scary. By the end I could hardly breathe from climbing al the steps. I am so glad that we did not so the trek now, I know it is probably an amazing experience but just hiking about up there was hard enough, I didn’t like being ill but getting the insurance back was worth it now I think. You are not allowed food or drink or anything into the ruins so when we got back out we bought a water and a coke and it was about £4!! These prices probably don’t seem like a lot to you at home but to give you an idea, a coke in the street is about 15p! We got the bus back down and had a look round the markets and I have wanted a chess board since we were in Africa but they kept asking for ridiculous prices like $75 so I saw wee ones here with all hand painted little Peruvians an the woman said 30s/ about £6 so we had a look around and found a stall where I got one and a magnet for £4 so that was good. We then got the train back an sat beside a nice Irish couple Helen and James and they had come from Rio so we managed to get some tips an they were of to NZ etc next so we gave them some. We had the most hilarious conversation about how to communicate when you don’t know the Spanish word and James was saying that when he books his bus seats he wants the extra leg room ones and has to put his legs on the counter to explain lol! We were telling them about being ill in Lima and I think I had forgotten to tell this story in the last blog but anyway one night we ran out of loo roll and went down to ask for more and the woman had no clue, we tried demonstrating and everything and eventually had to draw pictures of loo roll and toilets till eventually she was like “papier” we were like “si, si!!” lol so funny!! When we got off we decided to share a cab to save some pennies and there was a guy with a bus saying 5 each which is the same I not more than a can so we said no and then he left and we got outside and realised all the cabs were gone but luckily one came soon, we had the funniest conversation about if dogs have a universal language or not too which was pretty funny. When we go back to Cusco we said bye and then Craig and I went for dinner at an Indian place they had recommended which was gorgeous, we had then been up 19 hours so got straight to our beds where it was even colder than the night before so we rammed a bag against the door to try and keep out the cold, ye again what we wouldn’t do for a bowl of J’s soup and now we have added the electric blankets to that too lol!

Today we got up and felt a bit rough again all our skin is so dry and throbbing headaches again. Had a disastrous shower, packed up and checked out. We went to see if our laundry was ready which it wasn’t so we had a drink in McD’s and wrote our postcards then called Dad and Pop. After we had a fry up in the Irish pub it was not quite not the same but had black pudding! I felt so bad this morning a bit dizzy and queasy but felt better after eating. We went back to the hostel and read in the courtyard for a bit, there was a dog there that if you shouted Agua at it it talked back lol then we went and got laundry and tried to leave without paying oops! I then called the hotel in NYC and when I asked if he could send me an email confirming the date change he cut me off ad said no, I would have to trust him as he was working on his own so I said well I am in Peru and don’t have money or time to be calling him every day, so rude!! We then tried to find wireless to waste some time and upload photos etc but it was off in the one place we had seen so we came to the wee place we are at now as they said it works and I asked if he was sure and he said yes but it doesn’t so it will just have to wait. We have just had tea and just need to kill some time before our 7 hour bus to Puno on the edge of Lake Titicaca, we get there at 4-5am so are hoping we can get a 24 hour hostel so just off the net now to book that.

Hope everyone is well at home.

Lots of Love

Eva and Craig xxx