We arrived in Cuzco just before the Easter weekend started. We had a long bus ride of 11 hours throughout the day from Copacabana and we all agreed that night buses are so much better. When we arrived it was about 8.30pm and we caught a taxi to our hostel, the Pirwa Colonial Backpackers in San Francisco Plaza. The taxi driver tried to rip us off but thankfully we didn´t have enough money to get stooged. He took the only schrapnel we had albeit a little disgruntled.

Our hostel was one of the best we have stayed in. The beds were wider than normal singles and the best part...we had doonas/duvets!! Now this was a real treat! The rest of the hostel was pretty good too with big common areas, a bar, cable TV and piping hot showers!

On our first day we explored the city and wandered around the Plaza de Armas (main square) and its surrounding streets. We had received some advice from other travellers about booking a combined Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu tour and so went off to haggle a deal. The company we eventually went with were the cheapest and we felt good about the bargain but a little frightened by the eccentric lady that ran it. Even though we had a detailed voucher confirming our booking we weren´t sure she would pull it together! To allow Mark more time to get better we booked the tour for Easter Monday where we would go to the Sacred Valley on the first day, stay overnight in Aguas Caliantes and then go to Macchu Picchu the next day, returning to Cuzco by train that evening.

Mark sniffed out an english run cafe called ´The Real McCoy´ and was beside himself to find they served PG Tips tea, Branston Pickle and roast dinners. I have to admit he wasn´t the only one excited. The menu read like a wishlist. It goes without saying that we dined there frequently over the next 6 days!! They even showed Premiership football, had english trash mags and ran pub quizes! Catering to the boys and the girls!

We all spent a lot of time resting in Cuzco...it could have been the lure of the doonas! I started to feel a bit sick with a cold just as Mark was getting better and so it felt like one of us was always down. On Good Friday night we treated ourselves to an amazing restaurant called Fallen Angels. It had very camp decór with glitter balls, day beds and lots of modern art. Our table was a bathtub with an aquarium inside and a glass top. The food was amazing and we enjoyed the atmosphere and cute camp waiters...well us girls did! Unfortunately on the way to dinner Kate tripped on some cobblestones and injured her foot...and no she wasn´t drunk although I think she wished she was. This proved to limit her over the next few days and was terrible timing for Machu Picchu.

We awoke on Easter Saturday to the sounds of a marching band out in Plaza San Francisco and so Jane and I went to investigate. We discovered a HUGE easter parade where all the locals and surrounding regions dressed in their native dress, with regional twists, and danced choreographed routines from Plaza San Francisco down to Plaza de Armas. It was so colourful and festive that Jane and I watched for hours (hence the amount of photos and that´s just a handful!) It was a great opportunity to see everyone so happy and willing to be photographed as they showed off their outfits and dance moves. Jane and I were also thrilled to get close to a llama for a stroke!

We awoke on Easter Sunday very excited! Not because the Easter bunny had visited, because sadly he did not, but because ´The Real McCoy´ were hosting Sunday Roasts with a free vino, hot cross buns and chocolate easter nests....YIPPEE! On the way we stopped and hired Kate a hikers walking stick for the next 4 days! It was a great way to spend an afternoon but the hot cross buns weren´t as good as yours dad! I left around 5ish as the cold had set in but the others were having a great time and they next time I saw them was when they crashed into the dorm yelling and swaying at about 1.30am. They had been to Paddy´s, the Irish bar and another club and lots of fun. It was good to see them blow off some steam after so many rest days.

Easter Monday I was the only one able to leave the hostel as they all recovered in bed. Our tour to Machu Picchu had been postponed a day because of a train strike which given the hangovers was a blessing in disguise. We´ll do a separate blog for the tour because it did feel quite different to our time in Cuzco.

We came back to Cuzco on the Wednesday night and stayed another day before catching the nightbus to Arequipa. We wandered alot on our last day taking some time to enjoy the city before we left. Cuzco is one of the prettiest cities I have visited and the spanish influence is very evident. The plazas and architecture are stunning and, despite the hills, is a lovely place to walk around as there is just so much to see. It is very much designed to cater to tourists as it takes advantage of the Machu Picchu traffic but it does a good job of it. The only frustration is that you get hassled a lot to buy crappy handicrafts by wandering sellers but its a small issue really. We thoroughly enjoyed our time here and even though we all suffered an illness of some sort it was a great place to recuperate.

A belated HAPPY EASTER everyone, we hope you enjoyed your long weekend wherever you were!

P.S. I have been updating photos like a crazy person as I take advantage of this computer and its speed so make sure you check to see if you have seen all of the albums.

P.P.S Sorry for all the email alerts some of you will have saying we have updated the blog!