Our arrival in Cusco was stress free as our Amazon trip included one night's stay at a nice hotel in Cusco but we went and found a hotel with heating - we didn't want a repeat of China. We went with the hotel the Norwegian girls had recommended called 'Inka's Dream' which we nicknamed 'Inka Stream' after a while as the rain made a torrent by the side of the hotel. What we didn't know was we would also end up near possibly the best pizza maker in Peru.

After booking our Lake Titicaca trip we got sightseeing. We met a student tour guide in a Catholic church who was an evangelist and who wanted me to fix her up with Evangelists in Europe (it's all a bit funny if you ask me), we saw the last supper painting where the meal is guinea pig (very Peruvian) and then sat down to watch the parade for the day of the 'Mujer' (the woman). This involved endless colourful costumes and twirls and hundreds of woman. They were throwing out food to the crowds and some lucky street urchins got a few mouldy onions and garlic. As evening drew in we went to the most expensive restaurant we could find and ate some Guinea Pig. It was very tasty in the whole but the fur was a bit of a bind to get out of your teeth. The next day, the effects of altitude sickness were getting to Dave but a brisk walk in the rain helped out. Walking through the back streets in our new ponchos we happened on a local watering hole. Asking for a cup of tea did not go down well so they just ignored us from then on so we said our good byes and left. The ponchos let us down straight away so we took them back and found some very cheap and very cheerful new ones that despite being made of inch thick plastic did the job and kept the rain firmly at bay. We packed our bags and got an early night as the next morning we were off to the plateau: Lake Titicaca.