7th Dec

Today we are heading to the San Francisco Square to do a a free city walk with some local guides. The tour starts at midday. The 2 guys that take the tour are really great. The group is around 12 people of which 8 are from Australia. They take us on the not so touristy parts of Cuzco, and we also sample a lot of local food and drinks. Chica Morada is purple corn drink. A mixture of purple corn juice, Cinnamon and other spices.

We are taken to an old ladies house to sample her home brew beer made from corn. It looked pretty bad so a passed. Alan tried it but it didn't pass the taste test. Most people in the group didn't find it that palatable.

The tour lasted for nearly 4 hours, and we finish the tour in a nice little bar which sells nothing but a drink called Pisco. We are given some samples but it is not good. We stay at the bar talking to 4 other Aussies till around 6pm. What a great way to spend the day. the tour was very informative, and full of surprises. All in all a great day.

8th Dec.

Today we checked out the so called Chinese import markets, and the secondhand markets. Both are in a rather run down part of town. Nothing really exciting.
My throat is getting worse, and it looks like i am getting a cold/virus.
So far we are having a good run with the food. The best and cheapest option is to find restaurants with a sign displaying MENU. This is a set menu consists of a soup, main dish and either a desert or drink. The cheapest we have paid is $1.20 and $5 being the dearest. So far all meals we have eaten have been really good. I cannot work out how they make money on the food.
For example the place in La Paz where we had a MENU for $1.20 each. The soup was Quinoa with vegetables, and the main was a Chorizo sausage with salad and rice.

9th Dec

Woke up with one hell of a cold. Spent the day in bed and took some antibiotics that we brought from home. I hope Alan doesn't get it, but he seems to think his throat is getting sore, poor b*****. This wog really knocked me around.

10th Dec.

Woke up feeling a lot better. The wog is still slowing me down a little, but not as much as yesterday. We are the airport lounge at the Cuzco airport enjoying some nice free coffee and food. We we told to be at the airport at 9am, as the airline had canceled our flight, but had put us onto another carrier, Star Peru. We go to the Star Peru counter, and after about 15 minutes all is sorted, and we have our boarding passes. The flight doesn't board till 11.20am, so we have some time to kill in the lounge.