Cuzco Inca Party Town

Well as we explained in the last update we eventually made it out of La Paz and Bolivia on Saturday the 28th May. We really enjoyed La Paz even with all the trouble but we where getting a bit impatient and wanted to move on. So after getting across the border we caught site of our tour bus for the first time. When I say caught site of it isn´t really that difficult as it´s a massive bright yellow square box. On the bus there´s plenty of space for the 18 of us on the tour, some of the seats even have a table. (We´ve been told it is actually a truck and it´s called Jock!).

This was the first time we really met all the group as some were suffering from altitude sickness in La Paz. Due to the hold up in La Paz we had to miss the first few days of our trip in Peru, we were supposed to stay in Puno and then go to the floating islands on Lake Titicaca but we headed straight to Cuzco. On the bus Joanne and I were facing Rhys & John two 19 year old public school boys from Bristol, Rhys is Welsh and John is Irish but you wouldn´t know by their accents. Both of them have known each other for years and are travelling before heading back to start Uni in August. They were both amazed how old we where and both have been calling Joanne Mum or Mummy since the first bus trip, this has developed into most of the other guys calling Joanne Mum. Most of the people on the trip seem to be in their early 20´s with a few exceptions, but we´re not the oldest as we have a Norwegian guy called Oyvan who´s 42 who studied at Glasgow Uni for 4 years in the early nineties.

It was dark when we arrived in Cuzco, but even though most of us didn´t have any sleep the night before we decided to meet up in an hour and go out for dinner and a few drinks. We ended up in a Restaurant just off the main square (Plaza de Arms - nearly every town in Peru has a Plaza de Arms). Well it wasn´t your usual meal that night, both of us decided to go for some local food. Joanne went for an Alpaca steak (an Alpaca is closely related to a Llama, but is more sought after for it´s fur which is sold everywhere in Peru and Bolivia). I went for the house speciallity and local delicacy Guinea Pig, out of the whole crowd (21 including the two guides and driver) I was only one to order it. Well the guinea pig arrived whole on my plate complete with teeth and a cheeky smile, the skin was a bit tough but the meat was really nice and reminded me of lamb. All the crowd where really interested and quite a few people had a try. Joanne never really liked her alpaca as she thought it had a funny taste but quite a few other people really enjoyed it. In the local Cathedral there is a massive painting of the Last Supper and the main food on the table is guinea pig and they are all drinking the local wine.

After the meal we headed to an Irish bar called Paddys which was mobbed and full of gringos, it wasn´t a particular bad pub but I can´t really be bothered being in a pub in South America that looks like it could be Kilmarnock Road or the Merchant City in Glasgow. Every time you go across or around the Plaza de Arms you are pesterd by people trying to get you into the pubs, clubs, restaurants, cinemas or trying to sell you finger puppets. The finger puppet sellers where the worst, usually young teenage girls with puppets on their fingers knitted in the shape of Llamas, Condors or other assorted South American animals. First thing they ask is would you like to buy a finger puppet and when you reply no they then ask why not, they then ask where your from and try to shake your hand hoping that the puppets will come off in your and that you will buy them.

We then went to another pub overlooking the plaza called Nortons Rats, which I prefered to Paddys. This was a good chance to get to meet some more of the people on the trip. After a few dinks we then headed to a club called Mama Africa´s (we ended up here in more than a few occasions over the next week) and stayed for a few drinks before heading back to the hotel before we fell asleep on our feet. Most of the Clubs in Cuzco are free and you will probably be given at least one or two free drink coupons on entry (usually cheap rum and coke) but still it saves you a few pounds, beers in the clubs usually cost about 80p per bottle.

The next morning we met Mark our tour guide (6ft 5 Bald ex-Professional Rugby player - always useful to have round when the service wasn´t up to scratch) for an orientation walk around the beautiful town of Cuzco (which we were seeing for the first time in daylight) and we were shown some amazing Inca brickwork which had survived countless earthquakes in the area. The stones were all hand carved to fit tightly beside each other.

That night we all headed to a cheap chicken reastuarnt in which you could get Chicken, Chips and Salad for 7 Sols which is about 1.10p, this was the only thing on the menu but everybody really enjoyed it. The group where also by this time turning into Inca Kola addicts, nearly everyone had a bottle with their dinner. For those not aware of Inca Cola, well it tastes just like Irn Bru but is a yellow colour and it´s as much as national drink for Peru as Irn Bru is for Scotland. Every shop in Peru either sells Inca Cola or Inca Cola t-shirts. After dinner we had a few drinks in another pub before heading to another club this time called Mama America´s. This club was ok for awhile but apart from the people in our group everybody else in the club was Israeli, and quite soon afterwards the music was all hebrew versions of chart music from the last few years. We decide to head back to the same club from the night before and we stayed there until about 4:30 in the morning.

Next day we wandered lazily around Cuzco and checked out a few of the Churches and Museums, that night we had also had quite an easy time of it as we where doing a trip of the Sacred Valley early the next morning before heading onto the Inca Trail.