Yesterday afternoon we walked up to the hot springs of Aguas Caliente for a relaxing dip after a hard day trekking the ruins of Machu Picchu (Mashed Potato). We expected a naturally scenic pool in the flat of the mountains, in reality it was less appealing than Worthing Aquarena. Received many strange looks walking around town as Victoria decided to wear a towel on her head, a technique I should have used having recently had my hair shaved by Barnes the destroyer. I think the barber will refuse to tidy it up, given that I know have what appear to be sacred Inca carvings on my head and he wouldn't want the UNESCO world heritage people knocking on his door.

Machu Picchu itself was magnificent but the real beauty is in its mountainous setting. We got bored looking at a `pile of old rocks` after a while and decided to go and bother a llama instead. The day before, we toured the Sacred Valley of the Incas from Pisac (a pile of old rocks, which took a 5km hike to get to) to Ollantaytambo (a slightly bigger pile of old rocks). Our guide, Ruben, was a nice chap but less than informative: `Look at the mountain, he is big and he has got snow on him`.

Taking the backpacker`s train this morning, we returned to Cusco, where we went to church - possibly to escape the continuous parades outside in the main square. Today's celebration was in honour of the guinea pig and the same repetitive band music is starting to get on our t***. Heading south by bus to Puno and Lake Titikaka early tomorrow morning...they'll probably throw us a farewell parade!!!

Please check out the photos!

Shouldn't you be working?

Victoria and Tom xxx