To extend our stay in Cusco until we leave for the Machu Picchu tour, which we haven't booked yet but aim to leave on Saturday, we needed to change hostel. There was another hostel round the corner, Mallqui Hostel, that we visited and were shown some rooms which were fine. We choose our room and left a deposit to secure it for tomorrow.

We had walk around some plazas and shops trying to find a new small backpack, the old one is no longer waterproof and has duct tape on nearly every seam to hold it together. We were not having much luck though, we're looking for a packable one and they only seem to sell standard backpacks.

The sun was out in all its glory and we sat for a while in the main plaza enjoying the heat while we waited for the free walking tour to begin at midday. Our guide, Marco, was awesome - originally from the Amazonian jungle, he now speaks 5 languages and has a degree in Archeology. He was full of facts and very funny throughout the 2.5hr tour.

Starting in Plaza de Armas he told us about the fountain, a gift from France. It was delivered to Cusco by mistake, somehow during the transport the gift for Mexico and Peru got mixed up. The symbols are all of the ocean instead of mountain. In addition the Inka figure on the top used to be Mexican until one ****** local pulled it down. He was jailed but hailed a hero by other locals and a few years ago the statue was replaced with correct Inca 'Indian'.

Marco pointed out a restaurant in the square that had flying a red plastic bag on the stick. This is to let people know that they have chicha, the fermented corn drink, inside.

Some interesting facts he told us: the city of Cusco, when viewed from above, is in the shape of a puma which is culturaly significant. The city was upgrading some roads near the plaza and when they began to dig, they disovered Inca ruins buried under the road. These are now being excavated professionally and the roadworks have been halted. Tupac, the deceased American hip hop artist was named after the Inca who led a revolt against Spanish oppression.

Outside the cathedral, Marco joked about the cathedral doors having k*** like decorations that looked like nipples and to be fair, they did. We didn't go inside the cathedral because we didn't have time and they charged, we were told however that the doors opened at 6am and they didn't start charging until 8am so we could go in our time for free if we wanted. The cathedral has a Last Supper painting showing them eating guinea pig, and they have the local big breads on the table.

We moved up the hillside towards Plazoleta de las Nazarenas with a few fancy hotels surrounding it. Kings, queens and celebrities have all stayed in the area, probably being the only ones who can afford the US$ 1,000 a night rates. It is said that Mick Jagger spent US$ 8 million on his trip, with 50 invited friends, to Cusco and Machu Picchu.

Further up the hill, in the San Blas, we were taken into a music shop. The guy who owned it was a self taught musician for a variety of local instruments. He extended his talents further by actually making the instruments, his most unusual being an 'armadillo' guitar. He also would give free lessons and reckoned that within an hour he could have anyone playing.

We continued our climb up the cobbled streets and steps to San Cristobal church and it's imposing position, looking over and down onto the city. A couple of Incas in full dress played music and sang a couple of songs for us before having a chance for photos. David tried blowing on the seashell but only succeeded in making a lame **** sound, a million miles away from loud, long reaching horn sound the Incas made.

We walked back down the hill into the centre for some pisco tasting. Nice enough but we had already convinced ourselves that we should be drinking in Paddy's Irish Bar, the highest 100% Irish owned pub in the world. Maria managed to get a bottle of the English vintage cider that she last had in Arequipa and David settled for a Guinness, even if it did come from a can.

An American couple on honeymoon at the next table started talking to us. The girl started the conversation by turning to David as asking "Are you speaking English?". David put it down to jet lag and their 30 hour trip from California.

In the evening, we went for pizza at Bodega 138, a restaurant with good reviews and equally good food. It was packed but we managed to get a table. We decided to be adventurous, as the menu suggested, and shared a pizza with proscuitto and aguaymanto, a local Peruvian fruit sometimes called Inca berry, which was a really nice combination.