After almost a month of having to live around the relaxed timekeeping in Bolivia, it should have been welcome for the bus to Cuzco to arrive early for a change. Unfortunately four in the morning is not an ideal time to arrive and I was forced to check into an almost empty hostel for the first two nights until I could get a place at one of the party hostels. Partly due to bitterness, my first day in Cuzco didn´t exactly make me warm to Peru. For the first time I´ve been out here, there were hordes of fat old American tourists who seemed to think that a holiday is pointless unless they take countless photos of themselves with the same pose next to every place that could possibly be considered a landmark. Not only that, walking around the centre of Cuzco, you get hassled constantly for everything ranging from crafts to cocaine.

Thankfully, after a few days I warmed to Cuzco. Realising that restaurant owners would throw in loads of free food and drink onto an already cheap menu if you show the slightest doubt about eating there was a good start and I was able to eat increadably cheap five course meals frequently. Also, after checking into the party hostel, I went to some of the clubs in Cuzco, which if you can ignore the poor quality of music, are some of the best I have been to yet.

Cuzco is also an amazingly beautiful city with many colonial buildings and cobbled streets. The alleys up to the San Blas area are even more stunning, if a massive effort to walk up. Once at the top, it offers views of the whole of Cuzco and the surrounding hills.