We got on a night bus from Puno to Cusco little knowing that the next day was going to be a day of hell. At about 5am we stopped and got told that there was a farmers strike and there were rocks on the road so we could pass, but that it was only a 5 hour walk to Cusco. We set off through fires, rocks and horse skeletons with all our bags, and 11 hellish hours later arrived in a random town. We decided to stop there as there were restaurants and hostels, but then we found out that there was a bus to Cusco, so we got on to do the 45 minute journey, and 7 hours later after having had rocks thrown at us we arrived in Cusco, 20 hours late.
What followed was a nice relaxing week (we needed it!) We stayed in a nice hostel with cable and we spent a lot of time just sitting and watching MTV. Also spent too much money on souveniers and visited many ruins.
The highlight, though was definitely Machu Picchu. We decided not to trek there after our horrible day on Monday, so on thursday evening we got the train to the nearest town, Aguas Calientes. Got woken up at 4am the following morning by some loud Germans and got up to do the walk up the very steep hill to Machu Picchu. It was actually not as hard as I expected - it is not at a very high altitude. We entered the ruin and it was absolutely breathtaking - really well preserved and in a stunning location. We just wandered around taking it in for a couple of hours before walking back down the hill and taking the unbelievably slow train back to Cusco.
Cusco is a beautiful city but the entire time I was there, having done everything, I was just waiting to go home. Cant wait to see everyone!!!