Wednesday 13th April - Cusco

We arrived at 6am after 10 hours which while pretty much sleepless were spent on the world's comfiest (sp?) bus which came complete with a dinner of rice, green mashed potato and an animal of dubious origin. A lot of the food seems to heavily relient on carbs + almost obligatory slices of cheese (my 1st meal in arequipa was whole boiled potatoes in cheese soup). This might go some way to explain the predominant body shape too (short and square).
Sarah, Linda (Emma and Sarah's mum) and I were all feeling the effects of the altitude when we arrived and had to drink coca tea. Although it smells like dried peas and leaves in hot water it definitely did the trick (although P, how did you actually chew on the leaves for hours on end?...)
We then spent an unintentionally busy day, first pottering round cusco, getting out of breath going up hills and trying not to pay peruvian ladies for photos of them with their llama / alpaca / goat / child, then going on a bus tour recommended by victor, the guy who collected us from the overnight bus.
We thought it was a nice placid tour of the town that cost 15 soles but it tuned out to be a tour of all the inca ruins in the hills nearby which cost 40 + 130 for all the entrance tickets so we did feel a little diddled, but it was fantastic to see all the ruins and would have been impossible to get to them all otherwise. We did have a guide but his english was much like the words had been minced up in a blender and then squeezed out in a selection of linguistic sausages...almost totally incomprehensible so we didn't learn a huge amount.
Unfortunately I took pics on my camera and am now trying to use the hotel's wifi on my phone so the only image i can offer is sarah being a condor. Enjoy!
Dinner was in an amazing restaurant where I had beef on a bed of native herbs and emmahad alpaca on sticks and the most incredible range of different coloured potatoes. The alpaca was the tastiest thing.
In bed by 9.21! Ahhhh :-)
Ps linda's case has been found safe and sound!