Our next couple of weeks were filled with Spanish lessons; 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, followed by homework and practise. Staying at Gloria's was lovely, where she provided us with yummy flatbreads with butter, jam and cheese for breakfast, freshly made fruit juice each morning and tea, and even fried eggs on a Sunday! We also had lunch with her and her family (grown up son and daughter and sometimes a couple of her grandchildren), where we were fed very well, usually a tasty freshly made soup, a main of meat, carbs and veg, and accompanied by fresh juice, fresh lemonade or homemade "chicha morada", a juice type drink made from purple maize boiled with pineapple or other fruits; very tasty! On our first Monday at school we had been told the wrong times for our lessons so were sitting having a leisurely breakfast at Gloria's when the phone rang and Gloria told us we should be at school...all a bit embarrassing as we couldn't get it over to her in Spanish that it wasn't our fault, so grabbed our bags and rushed off to school. The lessons were intense, being bombarded with lots of information, vocabulary and grammar rules each day, with not much time to practise and get our heads around it in between. We were sharing Gloria's house with another student, Miriam, also from England. She was advanced Spanish and so took the pressure off at lunch times where she could help translate for us! Cusco was a lovely city to base ourselves in, despite the constant offers of "massagesssssss", trips to Machu Picchu, paintings, other handicrafts, and the occasional drugs!

After not doing a lot other than lessons for a week, we decided to walk up to "Christo Blanco", a big white coloured statue of Jesus on a hill looking over the city, with Miriam one afternoon, and managed to avoid paying the entry fee by scrambling up dirt paths round the back! The view from the top, of Cusco's sand-coloured buildings below, interspersed with pretty squares and a mishmash of winding streets throughout, was beautiful. After admiring the view we descended back down what we thought was the same way we'd come up, but soon realised this wasn't the case when loads of dogs started barking at us from around people's houses, some even baring their teeth, at which point Miriam and Sophie grabbed each other, scoring foo style, and ran screaming away from them, with Trevor shouting after them that was the worst thing to do! Luckily we escaped unscathed and rabies free, although all stepping in dog poo at various points!

We also managed to sample the nightlife in the area, having had a couple of good nights out with Miriam and the school students, sampling Cuba Libres (when in South America), and dancing the night away in salsa themed clubs, and with Miriam and Sophie dancers themselves, constantly marking everyone else out of 10 for their efforts! We also made time to look around a few of the markets, buying various locally made handicrafts as gifts for back home; they are keen knitters here, where you will often see women sitting on the corner of the street knitting up their latest wares. We both bought an alpaca wool jumper, which for the price of about £6 must have only 2% alpaca wool actually in it, and we now look like we are constantly wearing llama patterned Christmas jumpers! During Spanish class we were also taken to 'San Pedro Market', a locals market full of fruit and vegetables, unrefrigerated meat, big rounds of cheese, fresh juice stalls, and stalls with gigantic rounds of bread. Our task was to go off separately and ask for the price of certain fruit and vegetables in Spanish and report back, which went successfully and the trip was an eye opener, especially when we were told that one certain juice stall adds a live frog into the blender, which is supposed to make you more clever on consumption...despite needing all the help we could get with learning Spanish we decided to give that one a miss!

Other items to report in Cusco;

- People wee down the drains in the street, we saw a little girl crouched over one, while Miriam saw an older woman doing the same...good thing they wear those massive skirts to hide everything!
- Your washing will not be ready at the time they promise, allow at least another three hours, and prepare for half of your stuff to still be damp.
- Gloria puts make up on and dresses up to go to the 'dentist' at least once a week...
- The barber that Trevor braved a haircut in had stained pants hanging up in the middle of the shop...gross!
- There are actually priests in the confession boxes in the very ornately decorated Catholic Churches here...how exciting!
- Half as much alcohol gets you drunk at this altitude...this is a good thing if you remember and save money, this is such a bad thing if you don't remember and experience the hangover the next day!

On the 2nd May we all decided to have a break from Cusco and Miriam guided us all off to the bus station to catch a bus to a town an hour away called 'Andahuayhillas' to take a look at a couple of very old ornate churches she had heard about. Squeezing down to the front of the bus past loads of people standing we jumped off into the very sleepy town and headed to the church. The church was highly decorated, with a large use of gold plating everywhere, detailed paintings directly onto the wall depicting biblical stories, and a highly ornate ceiling. We then jumped in a 5 minute taxi to the next church, which although smaller had no less detail, and seemed to be highly focused on hell, with detailed paintings of demons and their actions towards people in hell; sticking their forks up people's bottoms as one example! After exploring the interesting, if not slightly disturbingly decorated church it was time for lunch. We headed off to a restaurant that had been recommended, behind a large stone wall that you would never have even known was there. It was set in beautiful grounds, full of pear trees, and white marquees over the alfresco dining tables; we could have been in the middle of the Italian hills at a wedding reception! We had roast pork complete with mounds of crackling, yuki (similar to potato) and salad, and it was delicious!! After a leisurely lunch we decided to catch a taxi back to Cusco, all full to bursting! Unfortunately that evening both Miriam and Trevor suffered from the food, with Sophie somehow getting away scott free, and there wasn't a lot of sleep in Gloria's house that night! The day has forever been known as the ill-fated "pork day"! Trevor still insists that he would eat the meal again give the opportunity. Apparently his longing for pork and crackling outweighs any possible health risks. He also took the risk of eating street food from San Pedro, 'enjoying' Alpaca heart on a stick, this time though there were no adverse side effects!

Following pork day it was our second week back at Spanish school, much to Trevor's dismay, until finishing on 8th May, having learnt absolutely loads, but needing a lot of time to practise and remember it now! We left Gloria's the following day, and after a yummy departure breakfast of scrambled eggs, we gave her some flowers we'd managed to buy in the San Pedro market, and walked for half an hour with all our bags up to the arty 'San Blass' area of Cusco to move into a hostel. After a heavy night out and getting to bed around 4am, the next day was filled with very hungover shopping and preparations for our long awaited Inca Trail which began the following day; we could have really done without the hangover!

On a side note, Trevor unfortunately learned of some sad news from home while in Cusco. His uncle Andy had passed away, and while not unexpected it was still upsetting. He played an important role in his life along with his wife Clarice and will be missed.