We arrived back in Cusco at 1.30am after our train ride and another cramped mini-bus journey. After being up at 4am the previous it was fair to say I was pretty shattered so headed straight to bed to rest my head.

The next day started with a Full English and watching Man Utd destroy QPR 4-0 at the hostel, what could be better to start to the day eh? The football didn't stop there as I went to sample a Peruvian Premier League game between Real Garcilaso and Alianza Lima in the soaring Peruvian heat. For the price of forty Peruvian Solas or eight English sterling got me entry into the ground and a R. Garcilaso jersey. I had recently an idea to get a shirt of every home team I had been to see, hopefully to frame them and put them in my own drinking establishment one day. The game was a stalemate; it was probably the right result due to the lack of quality on offer. The most memorable moment of the game for me apart from the half-time ice cream was probably the worse miss I have ever seen at a live stadium, infact maybe even on TV too. It was courtesy of the forward from Alianza Lima, as the ball was skidded in from the left he slid in from less than a yard out, in the centre of the goals and still managed to put his shot over the bar, it was harder to miss than to score. R. Garcilaso had their moments mainly coming from my man of the match of the game their number ten A. Ramua who hit the underside of the crossbar with a free kick and forced the opposition goalkeeper into two fine saves from long distant shots. The atmosphere wasn't the best I had been to in South America, there was still chanting in the concrete stadium but this was mainly from the away fans, maybe the home team was the equivalent to Wigan Athletic in England and had little support I'm not sure. I was glad when the final whistle went and I could pick my arse up from the concrete blocks / stairs which acted as seats for the stadium sat on them for ninety minutes can really make your ass numb.

I made my way back to Loki hostel where Earl was just starting in the poker tournament; he was soon out losing on his pocket aces. We then sorted out our next journey; this would be a trip on Peru Hop consisting of seven days and six nights where we would visit towns such as Arequipa, Nazca, Huacachina, and Paracas before eventually ending the trip in the Peruvian capital of Lima. I followed this with dinner, a Mexican pizza from the hostel which felt like forever to come out, I would have been more frustrated but it gave me an opportunity to try and chat up the cute Canadian bar maid with little success. After a few games of table tennis and table football it was finally tie to get my drink on in Cusco. The event of the night was 100's club or more commonly known as centurion, if you don't centurion then the rules are simple you basically take a shot of beer every minute for one hundred minutes. The last time I did it was while staying in Crown Hotel, working on the banana farms and I managed it, so I was fairly confident I could g through the 100 beers again. Few people signed up to it, I think there was just six people and four of them were staff then there was me and a rather annoying Chilean and of course I made up the six. It hit me early and I felt rather gassy, the aim now was just to beat the two girls involved, one the sexy Canadian from earlier. I did as they retired around the forty shot mark. It wasn't long after that I barfed up without warning pretty much putting the writing on the wall for my game and making me rather embarrassed in the process. I carried on until just after the halfway point hoping a tactical puke would help me out but it didn't and I had to retire and take myself to the bathroom to regurgitate some more of my Mexican Pizza. I did make it back out to see the final of the centurion and see the remaining three competitors finish the drinking feat.

The next morning I woke up surprisingly fresh after my drinking antics the night before. A shower and bacon and scrambled eggs got me well set up for the day. The day had a few things install the first job was to drop off my puke covered clothes at the laundrette. The next plan on the agenda was to go and visit Cusco's free chocolate museum. It was no Willy Wonka's but it was good value for money. Entrance was free and we got to sample many different tasters, chocolate, chocolate tea, chocolate jam and chocolate liquor of all different flavours. The museum was small and information fairly limited but it was free so can't grumble too much. The museum also offered workshops where you could make your own chocolate bar right from the start, we passed up this offer though and headed to a place called The Meeting Place, we had read that this place as well as being a really good café also offered a book exchange. Unfortunately despite the book exchange being fairly decent there was nothing on offer worthy of me willing to part ways with the Sir Alex autobiography. Not even the last two fifty shades of grey book could tempt me. With The Meeting Place being a no go for books we decided to check out a couple of the popular hostels and their book exchange. Unfortunately both Milhouse and Wild Rover's book exchange were piss poor. The only place where we found decent books was a book shop called SBS. We found the complete Game of Thrones series there but they didn't exchange so being a tight arse and not wanting to pay for a book we left and headed to San Pedro Market to one of their well renowned juice stands and for some lunch.

Lunch had made us sleepy so by the time we got back to the hostel it was time for a siesta until that nights activities got underway. It was our last night in Cusco so I wanted to have a bit of a mad one. And we certainly did, the nights festivities got off to a start with a beer pong competition. I teamed up with a lasso from Northampton call Bryony and Earl teamed up with an Aussie guy called Sam. Despite my cracking form getting in at least four shots of my first ten throws we were undone by the Kiwi and ultra-competitive American we were playing. It could have been a different story if any one of my five shots that hit the rim on the last cup had been a millimetre to the other side but it wasn't to be. Earl and Sam didn't fare much better either losing their game, still it was all good fun and we got onto drinking. We indulged ourselves in the Loki special blood bomb - this is similar to a jaeger bomb but instead of jaeger the shot dunked in the glass of red bull is grenadine and vodka. Bryony told me they were pretty horrific but they actually weren't that bad. The night escalated after a few more coronas, cocktails and blood bombs. Out came blonde wigs, various hats, Dutch girls and fluorescent UV paint which everyone had plastered on their face and bodies. One Dutch girl Maud, no she wasn't eighty years old she was actually very attractive even wrote her number on my arm, with much regret though this wasn't readable the next morning. As most people called it a night when the Loki bar closed at 2am Earl and myself ventured into the streets of Cusco to find another party. Monday night in Cusco though is very quiet the regular haunt for many - Temple Bar was closed as were many others. With limited places to venture we ended up at a Mexican bar partying with Peruvian gangsters. I assume that they are gangsters primarily because one of them had a tattoo of a gun on his forearm making us feel a tad uncomfortable so we drank our rum and cokes and headed back to the safety of our hostel.

The hangover the next morning was eased slightly with a freshly squeezed orange juice and scrambled eggs on toast. We then checked out before making our way up to see Cusco's big white Jesus. The walk there was interesting after climbing several flights of stairs the path semt to disappear meaning the rest of our journey we had to ascend the treacherous unforgiving steep grassy unstable hill terrain. A few times we had to pull each up sections but we eventually made the top. Cusco's big Jesus looked like he was off his head, it was much quieter than the one in Rio understandably but it does give a great view of Cusco. We made our way back down the correct path which was much more manageable and had a brief walk around Cusco before heading back to the hostel where Earl wanted to enter the Table Tennis competition. Much like every other competition he or I have entered though he was knocked out in the first round by an Aussie fella called Jono who worked at the hostel. In fairness to Earl it was a tough draw for him. For the rest of the couple of hours in Cusco I treated myself to chips, cheese and gravy and chilled out until Peru Hop picked us up and we were off to our next destination - Arequipa.

So until next time stay safe and take care

Adi

xx