Tom:

We are now 3360m above sea-level, and Nil has just recovered from a pretty nasty headache, and I´ve stopped wheezing. Well, I say wheezing, it was more like an attention-seeking cough. The good news is that we´ve finally sorted out our Machu Picchu trek for the 7th, after months of negotiating with our Peruvian tour company. One minute they´d booked us onto our trek a month too early, the next they were applying for a special permit on our behalf to do the trek, which we hear is still really dangerous after the wet-season floods, and now we are taking the train up there. You may call us wusses for not hiking, but this way we pay a third of the price for double the amount of time we would have had on foot. It makes sense to me! Anyway, Cuzco is lovely. The views are stunning and the food is the best I´ve tasted on this continent. The downside is that there are so many people like Nil and I, polluting the town with our hunger for sight-seeing and kebabs, that as our guidebook says, ¨it´s on the tipping point of being overrun by western tourism¨. But despite this, we totally understand why year-abroad Spanish linguists choose Cuzco as their location, being tempted to look further afield than the Iberian Peninsula. Anyway, Nil, you write something...

Nil:

Every bus journey we take seems to get that much better! Our most recent bus excursion treated us with leather seats, complementary food, and the local tea, ´mate de coca´, which is supposed to help with altitude sickness. I feel it´s interesting to let you all know that the ´mate de coca´ is made with the same leaves, that when processed and mixed with chemicals, go on to make cocaine! But this lovely, suggary, green tea isn´t illegal and isn´t a drug, so mums and dads please don´t worry! On leaving the bus we immediately went in search of a taxi driver to take us to our hostel, and we found one particular amicable gentleman. I asked to see his taxi driving licence to check he was legit, and it clearly stated in Spanish that his had expired back in March 2009. Not at all put out by this, the taxi driver claimed that everyone´s was like that, and with that reassurance Tom and I felt comfortable to use his services. We are still alive to tell the tale, and he really was a lovely man, who gave us a guided tour of the town on route to our destination. I am suffering slightly from the altitude, although I´m much better now after drinking plenty of fluids and mates de coca, which I´ve got quite a taste for now! The altitude is having interesting effects on us - Tom and I can´t walk up a flight of stairs without looking and feeling like we´ve just run a marathon and then wrestled a bear! Cuzco is really very beautiful, gorgeous lush mountains frame the town, and gothic, impressive cathedrals/churches overlook the cobbled streets. Hope all´s well at home. Lots of love xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx