Today we had to fly to Cusco as the protesters blocked the road.  It was a 45 minute flight compared to a 14 hour bus ride. Great change in transport, just a pity we had to cover the cost. It all meant we had an extra day in Cusco. Started it off with another walking tour. This city had 500,000 people in it. Quite a nice size, not too big, not too small. There are lots of awesome Inca buildings. Some of them are half and half buildings, part Spanish and part Inca. The Inca buildings are from the 13th and 14th century.  What is quite amazing about them is that the walls were all made without malta. They piece together so perfectly you cannot even squeeze a piece of paper into the gap.

We visited the 12 pointed stone, which is famous in Cusco. Kind of funny to see everyone pushing for photos, but also incredible to see how they had curved the rock to make it fit with all the others around it.

The most important Inca building is the sun temple. It has a Catholic church built on top of it. Patricia said this was a way the Spanish made sure the introduction of Catholism worked.  80% of Peruvians are Catholic but all 100% believe in the Andean religion. They worship three animals that represent the 3 layers of the region.  The snake for the under earth, the puma for land and the condor for the sky. Many of the cities were built in the shape of these animals. Eg Cusco is the shape of a Puma and Machu Picchu is the shape of a condor. The other important factors in the Andean culture are Pachamama ( earth mother ) and the sun.

Visited a couple of markets. At one we watched a man spray paint a pretty awesome picture. After he finished he raffled it off for one solles a ticket. And guess what......I won!

Nadine,  Simon and I went to the km.0 bar. It was it's birthday bash.A funky little bar, which we all quite enjoyed a few drinks to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli. 

The next morning we all sorted out our gear for the Inca trail and then relaxed. Very excited for the week that is coming up!