Forgot to mention in this yesterday... on our way out of the Sacsayhuaman site, there was about 10 peruvian women, in their typical dress, forming a guard of honour of selling things, 5 either side and making a tunnel to walk through. Later when we got home I came up with a great idea for the time, and since the secret of great comedy is of course...........................timing, it was way too late. If we go back however, we are going to shake hands with a few of them, and then line up the far side of them (like in a rugby match). I think maybe we should give a few of them the old "good game" slap on the bum too, just to see what happens!!!!

In the Irish pub beside the cathedral, also the highest Irish owned Irish pub in the world, you can buy tshirts that say No Gracias (No thanks), I think it might need to be more to the point, but that might get you in trouble somewhere down the line. It is definately the down fall of this place, and I may have mentioned it yesterday, but it seems to be getting worse. Today we sat down in the park to have something to eat, and 6 people came up to us one after the other looking to sell us things. Some of them are ok, and have a sense of humour (one guy told me it is free to look, of course I'm not in the market for any paintings so the answer was still no). We bought some woolly hats today on the hill up to our place, and when we walk past the old ladies now, they just say hello and smile at us, which is nice. As for the rest of the inhabitants, it seems safe here (ironically its inspite of the masses of police around). There was lots of riot police standing outside a building today, but they seemed like they were there for photos more than anything else. When we went passed this evening after dinner, there was a candle lit vigil/protest thing going on... no idea why though.

As for today, I seem to have come down with a bit of a head cold, so unfortunately our plans to look around the town again got a bit side tracked. We went for a fry up after we got our Inca Trail briefing, it was ok (the fry that is). Then we went back to the hostel and sat up on the roof terrace before I conceded defeat and had a lie down in bed... it didnt help. Went to the Irish pub for dinner, it was nice but they smoke in the pubs here so that kind of sucked... now its eight o'clock and I am trying to keep typing until about 12 so that I can try get a proper sleep tonight, It wont happen though its always nice to hope

Regina is ok, the altitude doesnt seem to be affecting her as much as me (and it only really affects me at night), though the walking up hills is a bit harder for her than me still... but she struggles on (its no worse than the hill in kenmare she did all her training on ;) )

The weather was much better today, lovely and sunny. It really made the place look fabulous, only I wasnt in the mood for photos today so we will have to hope for another day of it tomorrow. It is also quite nice at night, with the lights of the houses on the surrounding hills lighting the whole horizon up, and the lights on the churches and cathedrals really bringing the place to life. In one of the photos I called the Plaza de Armas the Plaza de Mayor, the fountain is all lit up and there is a buzz about the place with lots of people coming and going and all the pubs and restaurants filling up. There seems to be a lot of Peruvian looking tourists, or perhaps they just look like tourists, but they far out number the gringo tourists, which I guess explains the funny looks we are getting. Wow, twenty minutes to get this far, I wonder how much more stuff can I make up!!!!

So if I pretend to make up some history again???? Well, I still dont quite get the Inca religion thing and where it all comes from, but the Inca rulers and their tombs seems fairly understandable. The thing is though, none of the tombs are still visibile (apart from the odd wall here or there), as the invading spanish built over all of them. We took a walk down the Loreto Avenue, which has the oldest Inca wall ever ever left standing ever. It seemed like any other wall to be honest. There is also a 12 sided rock... which is just a big rock that has 12 cuts put into it to fit the surrounding rocks (I wanted to argue that there are 14 sides if you include the front and back, but didnt). The rock is surrounded by young lads who are more than eager to point out what is essentially the most obvious rock in the entire world due to their own standing in front of it... and I include ayers rock in that, and the wrestler the rock, and the prison in San Francisco, and you get the picture. It would be nice to see, even a remastered Incan site or tomb. There might have been some in the museums we went to, I wasnt pay enough attention, but it really seems like, apart from the ruins like Machu Picchu, that the whole thing is just made up. I mean, it was only 500 years ago that they were invaded and taken over, how hard can it be for there to be some decent records of them??? Anyway, I really cant keep typing until midnight. Not a lot done today, but tomorrow I think we take a bus to a ruin and walk back, nice practice for Friday..... dont worry folks, we will be ok, we have already agreed to get off at the last stop if we get seperated on the bus...... Tomorrow night is eviction night, you can vote to kick someone off the Island.... who will survive... bye for now

Regina - Sure I guess il write something about Cusco seeing as David is in bed sick(see im totally the healthy one) haha, hes got a bit of a headcold and the altitude is making it worse so its bed for the day for him, we need him healthy for Friday for the trek.Cuscos a really lovely town, very picturesque surrounded by all the lovely mountains, there are so many cathedrals and churchs that are amazing from the inside and out, its a nice place just to stroll around and take it easy...but its not that easy, every few steps you take there are people begging or trying to sell you something, its quite depressing because they are all so poor and are only trying to make a living but its hard for tourists as obviously we cannot give them all money and it also takes away from just walking around the town as it makes it quite stressful. It is definately the poorest place we have been so far and its quite a culture shock to be honest...Otherwise we havent really been able to get too far out of the town to visit the historic ruins as we are both pretty wrecked, walking up steps even 5 or 6 and my heart is pounding and i need a break, i hope im not that unfit...We had our inca trail briefing yesterday and the guide told us day 1 is relatively easy so hopefully by the time the hard trekking starts on Sat that we will both be fit and healthy....Adios for now Amigos x