Before arriving in Cusco we planned to stay in one of the party hostels as we hadn't met many other travellers. We could only afford to stay in a dorm in Loki hostel but we luckily had awesome people in our room. The town is situated at 3,400 meters and many found climbing the steep hill to the hostel a struggle!! Despite the breathlessness, we were rewarded with a good view over the town below. Cusco is the historic capital of the Inca Empire and is in the Urubamba Valley of the Andes. It is the main stop for travellers wanting to visit Machu Picchu and for this reason it has become a party town. Sadly the weekend we arrived a local election was occuring and alcohol was not allowed to be served to anyone!! Could you imagine that happening in England before the elections!?!?! The colonial town was very pretty with numerous plazas dotted about. At the bottom of our hilll was a plaza and old church (we frequently saw men weeing on the walls of this particular chuch, and women sqautting on steps here as we passed - Simon wouldn't let me take photos of their habits!). The main plaza housed the cathedral, bars and many tourist shops. Many of the buildings had quiant wooden balconies and terracotta roofs making the area look attractive. The side streets that ran off from the main plaza housed stalls selling goods made from llama wool. Gringo Alley, a street that catered for tourists alone, had local women in traditional clothes with sheep and llamas posing for photos. We booked onto an organised day tour of the Sacred Valley. The day began with a trip to a small market before reaching the Pisac ruins. The ruins had a lot of terraces, once used to grow crops. There was a burial site, which was basically a lot of holes in a hillside. Sadly, during the Spanish invasion, many of these tombs were raided for their precious metals (often buried with people for their next life). A small set of structures had been built at the top of the terraces and was used to mainly store goods. After lunch we visited a lovely town called Ollantaytambo. The buildings in this town were built on top of the Inca ruins and the stone work was still visible. This town was home to a huge Inca site. Running up the hill are numerous agricultural terraces which create varied ecological systems allowing for the growth of different plants. At the top stood a temple. A nearby mountain, visible from the terraces, held the storehouses. All the buildings were made from huge blocks of stone that the Incas carved and stacked. The ruins were amazing and made us more excited to see Machu Picchu. Chinchero was our final stop. Here we saw how the local Quechua people spin llama wool and use a variety of natural products to dye it before making garments. They used the insect found in the cactus plant to create red dye, dark sweetcorn for purple and moss for green. Guinea pigs roamed about in a clay pen beside the women doing their demonstrations. After being shown how patterns are put in blankets we were able to make purchases. We then headed up to the top of the hill to a colonial white Church that had been built on top of Inca Ruins. Inside was ten times more attractive than the outside. Like all Churchs in South America, we were blown away when we saw the intricate details and quantities of gold used in the decoration. As we made our way down the hill and back to the bus we were able to look at more stalls. Cusco was slightly messy! We had a few beers on a few nights in the hostel. It was pretty wild and we definately had many laughs!