Arrived in Cusco abouty 10.25 on 1st June after an uneventful but long and tiring journey. Immediately fell in love with the place. Our hotel is a quaint, quirky hacienda type built around a courtyard. We love it although it is not exactly state of the art regarding facilities, it`s charm more than makes up for it.It has a mixture of ofdd fixtures and fittings, beautiful stone pots and stone baths in the garden along with funny local artifacts like cute cows and mena and women in national costume. Our room is a large quarry tiled room with french windows out to the courtyard, two double beds, a bathroom but no heating. Each room has its own entrance either from the courtyard or a balcony. Temperature is about 18 - 20 in the day but going down to freezing in the night and early morning. We spent our first day wandering around Cusco an absolutely charming place with oodles of beautiful squares and buildings a mixture of crumbling Italian,m simple Greeced and even a touch of rural Uganda in the unsophisticated shops. Felt very safe wandering around. The people are so friendly and helpful although we are beseighed by beggars and touts every time we go near the main square. We have booked Arturo, a driver to take us around part of the Sacred Valley tomorrow. More on that anon. A fair deal of unrest here what with elections on Sunday and protests in Puno about a Canadian mining company prospecting on what is now agricultural land. May have to change plans about Puno. We are watching the situation and will decide what to do later. Will let you know when we know.