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So Cusco was really nice, a compact little city with loads of fascinating stuff to see from the inca and pre inca times and it was nice to get a break from all the travelling around and actually stay and get to know somewhere well for a few days, the first full day there i walked around the city looking at some of the ruins and visting some of the museums and found the most amazing sandwich shop jus round the corner from the hotel we were staying in, it had the best sandwichs ever and over the 3 days i spent in cusco i was there 5 times.
The second day it was one of the boys on the trips birthday, in the morning we went to a place called sasqwammen it was a ancient inca ruin including part of the wall around the city and went to a viewpoint abpve the city which was really nice but a long and very steep walk, nothing as i later found out comapered to the trek tho. We then went to the local food market and i tried a frog smoothie, this was funny cos trying to explain frog in spanish was rather difficult, but eventually i chose my frog, alive, from a small sized bowl and they took it and blended it with a few fruits and it actually tasted ok although the thought was completly disgusting, especially when your watching it happen.
The next thing was the beggining of the trek, the first day was spent mostly on a bus travelling around lots of inca sites these were completely fascinating how they achieved such detail is amazng and its strange to think how peru would of been a much better place if they were still around because they were so good at solving problems. We then had an early night before a 6 o`clock start on the trek the next day.
The first half of the day was spent in thermal baths in llares which was nice but i would of much more appreciated it at the end of the trek than the beggining, then the trek began just after lunch, the first day was relatively easy mostly flat with a few short steep inclines but only about 4 hours and we ended up at camp where we attempted to play some little school children at football they run rings around us, i blamed the trek but found out they walk further than that to get to school. That night was cold but nothing compared to the second my slleping bag was amazing tho so warm. The second day was the difficult one and i think is physically the most challenging think ive ever done, we trekkked to a peak of over 4450 metres in the clouds so the view wasnt amazing and noone could talk on the way up, but on the way down the view was amazing jus over ythe peak there was a big lagoon, at the top tho it was really cold and raining, i needed all those clothes. The second half of this day wasnt too bad mostly downhill but when we reached camp my legs were really tired and so was i. It was so cold this night we ended up with more people in each tent just for extra warmth. Then the third day was physically easier again but going down hill on a stoney gravelly terrain is a lot more difficult mentally you really have to concentrate, at the bottom again tho it was such a good feeling and we celebrated witha well earned beer.
The next day was spent seeing more inca sites one really good one called Ollytamtambo which was never finished because of the spanish invasion, but is resally clever in how in those times they worked out the exact point of the winter solstice and made the whole site look like a giant llama, they are some really good pictures from here.
After this we returned to Cusco for the night where we celebrated finishing the trek and then caught a flight to Arequipa, this is called the white city cos all the buildings are traditionally made from white volcanic rock and we spent a night in the colca cannyon which is the deepest cannyon in the world it was a really spectacular place and we got up at 5 the next day to see the condors, these are giant birds that are sacred in peru, im off to nasca tonight on a night bus.
Happy Easter everyone, hope you all have a nice weekend
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