So the landing into Cusco was yet another rather exciting experience. I think pilot training over here is like a short process. So myself and the Irish girl got of and grabbed our bags in amongst the annoying Americans and the Peruvian band trying to entertain us. Life is very different here, instead of simply grabbing a taxi you become Mr "HOW MUCH" and you barter with everyone. So yeh we did eventually find a taxi that was at a cost we could accept even tho it was still dirt cheap. The altitude here gave me a head ache fairly quickly and Co co leaves were on sale everywhere but i decided i would save trying them till another time. So after finding a hostel we dawned the streets and the were bloody busy. The festival was already in full swing. Lots of people in wierd costumes, people playing music and others dancing crazily. Plenty of photo opps. That night we decided to go to a pub but the Irish girl was totally against going to the Irish pub. So we wandered around for a while when i decided to ask a random American where a good bar was, he told us that they were going to a birthday party. We decided to go too. We got cake so thats all that matters. The next day we went and seen some of the churches and ruins around the city. Later we watched the parades and show. It was crazy how many groups were in the parade. It was basically on all day for like 3 days running up to the Big event. The main reason we were here tho was obviously to go see Machu Picchu so we were going to just get a train there. The Inca Trail sells out many months in advance and i didn't know when i was going to be here so i opted out of it. So yeh we were going to go to the train station but discovered it was closed so we couldn't buy tickets. Because i was short of time this was a bit of a dilemma. Anyway the next day we went to see the big festival show thing. It turned out Bill gates and Cameron Diaz was there too. It had a massive crowd and getting a good view was near impossible so after 45 min of not much happening we decided to just go. That afternoon we spent going round all the tour agency seeing if any of them could take us to the ruins but they were all too expensive. We just decided to go to the train station first thing in the morning and try get a ticket then. When we got to the train station there was already a large queue for tickets. We grudgingly stood in it and waited. While keeping up to date with the ticket situation a man approached us and offered us some tickets but we would have to get ourselves to another train station far far away. It all was very dodgy but after allot a question we decided he would drive us and he wasn't getting money until we were on the train. In the car he found a couple more people to come with us. They were from Buenos Aires. The girl looked like a living Barbie doll and she was bloody annoying. The guy showed us the tickets and they had names on them. So if it couldn't get any dodgyer we had to adopt new names. I was Jacob and my Irish friend was Emma. The drive was long and the whole was the Barbie talked about how good Buenos Aires was, i didn't know what she was saying exactly but i could make out every time she said Mucho Sol (Lots of sun). When we got to the train station and an awkward confusing attempt to get on the train we were on our way. It was a very cool journey and very picturesque. When the train stopped the chaos started. They guy who had sold us the tickets paired us up with a guide so we went to find him. We did but he already had a group of about 30 people. He then launched this wee red flag in the air and told us to follow. So we did and at great speed. He then stopped then told us 2 that we had to go pay some sorta tax or something so he ran off and we ran after him. We found him in the place to pay the tax and then i had again run to find a cash machine. It was all a bit crazy and we lost the guy. We decided to just go get a bus up to the ruins. What a windy road up there. If you ever get a chance check it out on google earth or something. When 2 busses met there was some interesting moments. At the top we waited for the guide and he did eventually turn up. They took us into the ruins and it was very cool. Spent a few hours up there wandering around taking pictures ect. Tried co co leaves out eventually. It was crazy some of the stuff that happened to the place because its become popular. A camera crew chipped of a chunk of rock from a sun dial while filming. The Peruvian prime minister made them knock down a part of it so that he could land his helicopter. So when the time came we got the bus back down and the train back to cusco. It was dark and late when we got back and we had to rush of to the bus station to get a bus to Puno.