Interesting facts for those who want to know

Flights taken so far - 8, Flights still to come - 8 ....total 16 flights !!

Hotels we have stayed in so far - 11, Hotels to come - 5....total 16 Hotels !!

I was going to add up the total flight kilometres and then road as well but was gonna be all to hard.....Anyway you get the picture, come along way and have just as long to go. But so far we been having a good time, tired but good.

Anyway today's blog is all about Cuzco and the huge amount of history and ruins surrounding it. Cusco is located in the southern sierras of the Peruvian Andes at about 3500 mtr above sea level. It's a facinating city which was the capital of the sun worshipping Inca Empire. Cusco is now a world heritage site and many believe that the city of cuzco was planned out in the shape of a puma. On sunday we visted so many places. To name a few we went to Cuzco Cathedral built in the 17th Centrury and it has a solid silver high altar inside. No pictures are allowed to be taken inside (this is the case with nearly all churches). It was contructed on the site of the Palace of Viracocha, the "creator" of civilization and one of the most important deities of the Inca. It's high altar is a masterpiece of Andean Woodcarving.

Another truly amazing place we visited was the ruins of Sacsahuaman which overlooks the city and the near by Tambomachay ruins. This place is huge.... it is so spread out that it would take probably a half a day to go to each section. Here the Inca's used the natural shape of the ground to build around and we went down into an area called 'mother temple' here they used to do animal sacrifices. Some humans bones have been found too but not many. Very dark inside but the pictures came out ok.

The next brilliant place was the Korikancha or Temple of the Sun, The Inca's most sacred building in Cuzco. It now forms part of the spanish church of Santo Domingo. This is where ruins, temples and church collide. It makes for a memorable visit full of history and culture of both Inca and spanish all in one.

Today, we did a bit more visiting places in Cusco city. The city is made up of many squares and the main square has much to see. Our hotel was behind the main square and so very easy to get our bearings. We visited a couple of musuems and had a good walk around many cobbled sreets. Loved the building so rich in their past spanish but built on Inca stones. Today we had our washing done at a local travel agents....yep they also sold clothes. That's the way it is here most shops are very diverse in what they sell and do. Food is very good here and fairly cheap. Tonight we had dinner in a lovely restaurant across from out hotel and had fillet mignion ... included a welcome drink of the famous Pisco Sour as well and total for two of us was less than $34. Don't think we can eat a fasta pasta ever again and think it is value for money ... we also did a little shopping today (our last day here) and they have great knock offs of North Face clothing and backpacks. They also have the real deal here and it's very expensive but you cannot tell the difference from the real to not...so why not...

Tomorro we are off again, very early start, get picked up about 6am !! All day bus trip to Puno. Will not blog again for a few days, so my peeps you will have to wait. ..... lol to all luv ya's.