So we havent really managed to do anyting in the last few days, on account of me being a little bit under the weather. Who new that being this high up would be so bad for me!!! Anyway, I seem to be over the worst of it... possibly the masses of cocaine tea I drank yesterday did the trick!!! Tomorrow we head off on our four day trek to Machu Picchu. If I am honest I am a little nervous about it, I don't know why, probably the altitude talking!!! I think the hiking should be ok for both of us so long as we take our time, and there are really only two places that are higher than here and we wont be staying there for very long, so all in all it could end up being quite enjoyable. By all accounts the views (if we get them) are going to be amazing. There will of course be parts where we will be surrounded by cloud and will barely be able to see each other let alone any mountains in the surrounding area... but you will have that in high places!!!!!

So, today anyway, we did manage to go see the last two museums on the list. The first was pretty drab, contemporary art that was all for sale... more like a gallery than a museum. The second was more of a natural history museum and was a bit more interesting, albeit in spanish for the most part.... the pictures were interesting!!! We also walked around some of the churches (from the outside, they are actual churches.... in use). This is definately the poorest place we have been, and yet there are things I see that dont add up to it being poor. The bank with the golden doors contrasted by the half finished pavement in front of it. The man begging sitting on the same bench as the business man with the laptop and briefcase.... My poor mind is troubled by the weird things it has seen in this place. If you just look around this place is beautiful, if you look to hard though it becomes almost disgusting. I wouldnt like anyone to think badly of this place based on this, and I certainly dont, but its hard not to be honest about somewhere that is so opposing to itself. I am raving again as usual, and although I intend to do it, and dont at the same time, Im sure I will appreciate it when we have been through New Zealand and Australia and are making our way to Asia. I think I could probably say better how I feel about here than type it, so feel free to ask me when I get home.... if I remember!!!

This evening when we went for dinner we again got the funny looks. A group of teenagers, mostly boys but not exclusively, passed us by and although all seemed to notice us, only one took a real interest and started pointing and laughing (genuinely pointing and laughing). He stopped walking and as each person in the group passed him by he pointed us out and they all laughed along with him until he reached the end of the group where himself and another boy got a camera out and jestured to us to get a photo. I gave him a firm shake of the head (side to side) and he thankfully accepted it graciously and off he went smiling away to himself. Regina and I spent most of dinner discussing why this has now happened three times that people wanted to photograph us. Regina is fairly sure its the hair and skin (for both of us), I am not so sure, but I dont disagree with her all the same. There is every chance that the school children that saw us on the first day had never seen white people before, particularly as white as Regina (mwah!!!). Or at least had never been so close to them to ask them questions, and in their defense they seemed genuinely inquisitive and wowed by our strange appearance. I guess that maybe any child who had never seen someone that looked so different to themselves might share this feeling, and it is only our own exposures to racism that saw this as a race thing and not just a different thing. The next encounter was the mother and daughter. For me this was the strangest, I cant imagine my mam asking two peruvians at the cliffs of moher for a picture of them (maybe you can comment mam???). So this one has me completely baffled. They presumably arent so untravelled or poor that they have never encountered a white person... we arent the only ones in town by the way.... and they do own a digital camera for what thats worth..... So I dont know, perhaps it is simply a cultural thing that nobody reading this could understand and we would have to ask someone here (not going to happen). Maybe we do just look famous......

Anyway, this will be the last post about Cuzco specifically, we may go to the other ruins near here when we get back from Machu Picchu, and of course I will write stuff about the trek when we get back. So to sum up Cuzco.... its weird and one should come here with a very open mind and plenty of patience.... and the words ¡NO GRACIAS!