Got the overnight bus from Arequipa to Cusco (the old Inca capital of Peru) and decided to stump up for ´luxury tickets´ which was a bit like flying (with less terror). We had our own attendant, reasonable food, a film (´Marley and Me`, emotional) and seats that went back to near horizontal meaning we got a bit of sleep.

Stayed at ´Home Sweet Home´ hostel in the San Blas district which was excellent, although the walk up the massive hill and series of steps was a massive effort with our rucksacks. Good prep for Machu Picchu though and gave us amazing views over Cusco. Treated ourselves to our first decent curry for ages at ´Korma Sutra´ and the Alpaca rogan josh was awesome.

Katie and Alfie arrived the next day and were staying just down the hall and was great to catch up on a lot of stories since we saw them back in Melbourne.

Checked out a kind of street parade / dance off between lots of local groups through the city the next day which was really good fun, although even a few locals didn´t know what it was all about. A few tourists joined in, but snake hips Guerrieria played it cool.

Watched United crush Chelsea the next day (thank god it was on this time) and me and Alfie then braved our first course of guinea pig in one of the local restaurants after meeting up with JP, one of Katie and Alfie´s friends they´d met a few weeks ago. Have to say that guinea pig looked and tasted terrible and Sarah was convinced they served us rat. Had lots of small, crunchy bones and the head on Alfie´s looked like it was still screaming in pain. In hindsight we probably should have tried it at a better place... maybe they should just be pets after all.

Wandered around the pretty impressive Cusco cathedral the next day and checked out the Cusco Inca museum. It wasn´t too bad, but hardly any translations in Spanish - arse.

Wandered into a bar that night and were surprised when a local band got up and played right in front of us. They were pretty decent and had plenty of characters, though not sure Alfie was too impressed when the lead singer started serenading Katie!

Got packed and ready for our Inca trail trek to Machu Picchu the next day and went down to see the tour company and have our pre trip briefing. 3am start the next morning - NOT PRETTY.