Day 29-31 Cusco, Peru

Our first full day in Cusco we spent walking around the streets, planning the next few parts of our trip, getting our gear ready for the trek and just enjoying some of the sights of Cusco. We followed some of the tourist trails between old sights, tried a new street food which was pretty much warm corn bread wrapped in a corn husk, safe and tasty on Mia's scale of street food.

The next day we were out on a full day tour of the Sacred Valley. We visited Pisac where we wandered through the markets, bartered for a few goods, tried some of the biggest corn on the cob in the world and watched as locals made bread and empanadas in huge stone ovens. Then onto Urubamba and Ollantaytambo where we climbed the enormous stone terraces and again marvelled at the knowledge and craftsmanship of the Incas. Ollantaytambo was enormous and great to walk around. As we stood up the top of this ruin and looked down at the town square below, we were treated to a surprise spectacle.There was a large bull fighting ring with hundreds of spectators sitting around the surrounding walls watching on. I was happy to hear from our guide that they do not kill the bulls here in Peru as they do in Spain. My conscience was ok to watch. We watched the rodeo clowns entertain and then the matadors entered. After a number of them had close shaves the bull got its revenge and one Matador was flipped up into the air. He slowly walked away to cheers from the crowd so all was fine.

The next stop was not an Incan sight but the amazing and enormous buffet lunch. The best lunch we had had in a long time. With so many salads and vegetables, different meats, beans and potatoes and other hot delights, we were loving it. Let s just say that the dessert table did not go un-noticed either and was visited more than once.

The last stop was Chinchero where we got to see how the local women made some of the amazing bright fabrics used as rugs, blankets and to carry their babies as well as other goods around the streets. The colours they created from only natural products was amazing. The most surprising was the brilliant red they got from crushing this parasite that is found on the cactus plants in the area. They are white in colour but when squashed they come out a blood red. This product is actually exported all around the world and used in make-ups such as lipstick and blush, mmmm squashed parasites on your lips, nice. After the demonstration we checked out some of their hand woven rugs and fell in love with many.We decided that this was going to be a purchase we couldn't avoid.But not today, we didn't have enough money on us for these ones, we decided to wait for the markets of Cusco.

The next day we checked out many of the other places in Cusco we hadn't yet seen, bought our flight to Lima for after our trek and looked at MANY rugs. Finally after getting the right lingo down to find the hand-made rugs with the colours we wanted, we got one.

That night we met up with Bec and Dan, the couple we met in Patagonia, Dan was coming on the trek with us and Bec was meeting us up in Aguas Calientes. We got a few things ready for the trek, packed our bags and got to bed early for our 4am wake up call and the start of our Salkantay trek.