Cusco in the morning light - 24th October 2007

A bright and early start with not a great deal of sleep had me heading into town to pay the balance for the Inca trail and to see what the city was like.

View from Loki hostel of the Plaza de Armas in the distance.

I´ve started to feel really nervous about my forthcoming 4 day trek along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, even though my whole trip has been centred around this very trek. I´m wondering about how tough its gonna be though at the altitude I´ll be going to and the terrain we´ll be covering. On that note however I head off to find the Llama Path office in order to pay the balance of the trek and find out the last minute details.

The Plaza de Armas.

The staff at Llama Path seem very friendly so I pay up what I owe them and decide to go for a coffee to get over the shock that now I definately will be doing the Inca Trail trek!!

After coffee, or rather a coke, I opted for a wander around town to soak up the sights and the atmosphere.


I´ve decided that Cusco is a very busy city with lots and lots of people and with so much going on. Its a beautiful city but I think Arequipa is still more so, also Arequipa is far less touristy!




















The Cathedral.

On a brief walk around town I was offered on numerous occasions a massage, a manicure and a pedicure! On careful consideration though (!!) I decided that with 4 days trekking with no shower facilities avaliable just 2 days away any of the above would have been pretty pointless!


I headed into the cathedral for a visit and guided tour but mainly to view the very famous oldest surviving painting in Cusco. It shows the entire city during the 1650 earthquake where the inhabitants can be seen parading around the Plaza with a crucifix, praying for the earthquake to stop. What do you think happened next?!!! Very interesting all the same though.

This evening I was meeting up for dinner, with Lynsey and Julian who I had met in Arequipa on the Colca Canyon trek. They are heading off on their Inca Trail tomorrow morning early but we still find time for pizza and a Pisco Sour or two!

After they headed off to their trek briefing I opted for a wander around town taking in Cusco by night before heading off back to the hostel to find that my three considerate Californian guys were planning a big night out, I`m wondering how considerate they`ll be then!!





Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus (a well known church also on the Plaza).