Week 23: Relax, Take It Easy

Right I hope those of you who like picture books aren't too disappointed by this. The reason I haven't posted a blog update in so long is because a load of my photos got messed up by a computer in the bust terminal at Lima. Then I just got lazy after that. So this might not be the most interesting blog in the world but I hope you enjoy it after a lengthy absence.

The main plaza in Cuzco

I must admit, I have been putting off writing this week's blog, and considered skipping it altogether but thought I would probably just confuse myself. So we didn't do a lot this week. And when I tried to back up my pictures from the last few weeks, they sort of... deleted themselves. Which is a real bummer. So not only did we not do very much, I don't even have any pictures of the very little we did do. So I scoured facebook and that will just have to do.

It all started off quite eventfully, you may recall my mentioning that we decided not to get any snacks for our bus from Arequipa to Cusco. Serious error. The first I knew that anything was amiss was waking up at about 0430 and peeking out the window to see a zombie-like crowd of Peruvians staring at me. And then one of them banged on my window which gave me a bit of a fright.

From there it only got worse. What was supposed to be an eight hour journey turned into an 18 hour journey. A series of road blocks caused by protests over building a new airport. (Unlike at home they were protesting because the government had promised to build an airport and hadn't.) About 3 fires, 7 delays, a moment of panic whe the bus started driving off while Matt and I were still outside and half a watermelon each we finally arrived in Cusco (round 2 for me). After fighting for a cab because of the protests, we arrived at our extremely nice hostel/guesthouse, Mama Simona.




Half an hour of turnaround time to take a shower and we were straight out the door to treat ourselves to some well deserved food. On my suggestion we went to a well-known cafe called Jack's, where we indulged in steak sandwiches and chips. Gemma was particularly pleased with the tea. Although we were all pretty wrecked from the bus journey, we decided to go for "one drink" (we all know what's coming next), one drink turned into a few more and by half 10 we were dancing in a club with locals. We went to bed about 1am.

Imagine someone putting this in front of you after an 18 hour bus journey!

The next day was a bit of a write off due to the combined events of the day before. Although I did manage to watch The Cider House Rules (Honestly, whoever wrote the script obviously hasn't read the book).

I am quite a big fan of free walking tours in cities (free = tip-based) so the following day we went to one of two in Cusco, where we visited a number of sites including walking up to San Blas, the slightly more "hip" area of Cusco, one might say. Our guide was extremely knowledgeable and informative and the tour happily finished off with a free tasting of Pisco Sours (yummy). During the tour I had an epiphany regarding dinner for the evening and so later Matt, Gemma, Steve and I sat down for BAKED POTATOES with a variety of toppings. It's the simple things in life...
After dinner we met up with Harry, who we had done the Colca canyon trekking with, and Ant, who everyone except me knew already from travelling or home.

After another day of wondering the city we (Matt, Gemma, Steve and I) headed to a bar in San Blas which had been recommended to us on the walking tour, as apparently there would be live latin music there that evening. Apparently. Clearly there was not, there were a few mediocre cover bands but that was about it. I tried shisha for the first time(!) we had coconut flavour which was pretty good. There was an awesome picture but along with all the others from this week it got fried. We ended up yet again at a place called Mama Africa (the very same place we had visited on the night we arrived). There were some particularly stunning dance moves (Gemma...) and over the night we all made it home almost without incident (Steve...)

I would be lying if I said that the next day wasn't a full-blown hangover day (sorry Mum), although we did manage to watch a few films and feel quite sorry for ourselves. Although on a very exciting note (or boring...?) I finally bought a pair of jeans after 5 months of travelling, my jealousy of other people was just becoming too much.

Before we were all really soaking wet

Sunday, on the other hand, could only mean one thing... Carneval! Although nothing compared to Rio, we still had a very fun day which mostly consisted of a giant waterfight in town with water bombs, shaving foam cans and silly spray. And also, sadly, some kind of horrible corn starch powder. (Someone came up from behind and threw it in my eyes, on later reflection they may well have been trying to rob me, thankfully our team system worked and Matt, Gemma and Steve had my back and brutally attacked my offender.) A couple from the hostel, David and Becky were lucky to bump into us and joined the group. After a few hours of fun we decided to go and get a beer (naturally), it was at this point I started to feel something might not be quite right. As we popped into the supermarket on the way home my left eye started weeping profusely. Although we had planned to go out again later in the evening, I was from that point onward hostel-bound for 2 days, apart from one small and extremely dangerous venture out to visit the pharmacy, I am quite surprised I didn't get hit by a car as I only had about 40% vision. I postponed my trek and spent the next day lying in bed with a flannel over my face, for once it wasn't self-inflicted.

Matt and Steve working it for the camera

Matt and Gemma left that morning to head off on the Inca trail, despite some errr... traveller illnesses, they were unable to postpone their trek so had to suck it up and soldier on. After a day of rest I felt ready to head out on my trek.