We arrived in Cuzco in the afternoon and headed for our hostel The Point right near the centre. We were both feeling a bit crap for the first couple of days, both a bit ill, so didn´t really manage to do much. Shamefully the first night we ended up eating at The Real McCoy, an english pub, where we had baked potatos with cheese and BAKED BEANS! theyr're really not something you get in europe or south america so that was quite exciting for us. We were in a small dorm where we were the only two people who didnt work in the hostel! The Point employes travellers to work in the bar there for a minimum of two weeks. They don't get paid, just accomodation and one free meal a day and drinks and stuff. Im sure we would have stayed and worked if we had the time. We were sharing a room with Katie (aussie), Gadi (israeli) and Kelsey (from california) who were all really lovely. Cuzco, which was the capital of the inca empire, is suprisingly small with only around 300,00 inhabitants. Its a beautiful city though, with a mish mash of inca and colonial stone buildings.

After a day and a half of lounging around we finally got our acts together a little bit. We went to the Inka Museum which had the usual collection of pottery, precious metals and textile scraps but also had a collection of Inka mummies, many children who were sacrificed. Very creepy looking. The incas dont have their mummies flat out and wrapped in bandages, they're in sitting foetal positions and completely uncovered.

Next we headed to the Centre for Traditional Textiles of Cuzco, which was set up to promote and protect peruvian weaving techniques. There was a little museum of weaving and 3 ladies sitting weaving in the traditional manner with their work attatched to them with a backstrap and to a wooden pole. It was quite amazing to watch them work actually. It took sooo long to do one line of weaving. It was also a shop where you could buy their work. A large percentage of the money goes straight to the weavers and each item comes with a tag with the picture of the weaver and their name and date of birth.

The next day (our last) we finally felt well enough to visit some of the inca ruins that surround the city. We got a little and very packed local bus up the hill to Qenqo which was an amphitheatre and temple. There was hardly anyone up there so it was really nice and tranquil with some great views over Cuzco. It was kinda dificult to tell what we were looking at though, there were no signs or any information, despite the fact that we had to buy a ticket in Cuzco to visit the site.

We wanted to walk to the nearby larger ruins of saqsaywamán (or sexy woman as many people call it) but got a bit lost trying to figure out where it actually was. We were both in our plimsolls so we slipped a good few times on the dusty, rocky little paths. Then, as we were walking through a little wooded path a boy with a dog appeared. The dog was completely crazy and started running at us barking. I was screaming so it went for me and bit my ankle! Then the boiy threw something at it and it ran off. Luckily it only just broke the skin and it was through my jeans so hopefully no rabies! We managed to figure out which way we needed to go and walked over past a large white statue of an open armed Jesus which stands on a tall hill over looking the city.

When we arrived at Saqsaywamán it was completely different, swarming with tourists with people constantly trying to sell you hats with llamas on or offering you a taxi back down. There was also a group of women in full traditional dress with some very pretty llamas and alpacas. They were spinning thread from the alpaca wool and shouting at everyone who went past 'Amigo! Una foto!' They wanted people to take photos of them and then pay them. There were also a load of people offering to be your guide and we decided to take one of them up on the offer. It was 15 soles (2.50) for both of us and well worth it. SAqsaywamán is actually quite an important inca site but because only 15-20% of it is left, unlike the 85-90% of Machu Picchu, you don't hear so much about it. It was an important religious and ceremonial site and is still where they hold the important Inti Raymi (festival of the sun) celebrations which are coming up in about a weeks time. They have a huge party up there and do a ceremonial sacrifice of one black llama. We learnt quite alot about the site in a short time with the guide. It took approximately 20,000 people 50-60 years to build the site. They used stone from a quarry 3km away which is absolutely extraordinary considering the size of some of them. One piece weighs about 300 tonnes and is 3m deep. You can see us in front of it in our pictures. They used sticks, tied together to map the shape and the size of a stone and then took that back to the quarry to help them carve the next one. The stones fit together abslutely perfectly and in some places supposedly form the shape of important animals such as the llama and the guinea pig (which they eat in south america). the main complex has three levels, as with many inca buildings, which are represented by three important animals. The first is the snake, the symbol of the earth below us and the underworld which also represents knowledge. The second level is represented by the puma, strength and the world we live in. The third is the condor, a messenger to the heavens. On top of these three levels which have a complex draiage system due to the fact that they had no roofs, there used to be 3 buildings. These had roofs and were used to store dried goods but all thats left is the rocks at their foundations. He also showed us what looked like the remains of a large round amphitheatre. In actual fact it was an artificial lake which the incas used to observe the stars and for ceremonial purposes (as well as for water presumably). Our guide took us down through a tunnel wich was used to release some of the water. It was completely pitch black inside so we had to feel our way through. There were little niches carved out of the rock in the lñake where they would put offerings to the gods. We also found a natural big stone slide which was fun! Saqsaywamán was built by one of the most importaant inca rulers, Pachacutec. But when the conquistadors arrived there was a battle at saqsaywamán and much of it was destroyed. The spanish used dynamite to blow apart the walls of the artificial lake. They also stole much of the gold and silver which would have been there. Our guide showed us a snake shape carved out of the çrock which once had a gold snake embedded in it.

After our tour we walked back into town. We headed out for dinner and were acosted by a swarm of people whos job it is to try and get you in their restaurant. They were all waving menus at us and shouting and saying the others were lying and they were great and we copuld have free stuff... We ended up with a 3 course meal for 10 soles each which wasnt bad.

That night was an interesting one. Our hostel was hosting a HUGE fancy dress party, althouygh i dont think it ended up being as big as they'd intended. We just got our faces painted but some of the peruvians had gone all out and the place was decorated with balloons and tape strung acroosss the courtyard, a bonfire in the garden and a stage and platform for the DJ in the courtyard. Our room mates were made to dress up properly to work on the bar. Katie was roped into being topless and bdypainted! as was gadi. kelsey was wrapped in leopard print fabric with her face painted. Unfortunately, our stomachs still weren't really up for drinking but we jopined the party any way, it wasn't like we could go to bed - there was a bar set up outside the door to our room! We mostly sat at the bar chatting to people and eating vodka jelly. They got out this horrible contraption with two funnels and about 8 hoses through which people had to sdrink a nasty alcoholic concoction of some sort. At half three or so, unable to drink and with the party getting to the stage where you really hads to be drinking, we tried to head to bed. We knew that we had to be up VERY earliy the next moprning as we were being collected at 6am to go on our machu picchu tour.