Cusco, Carnaval and Carnage!
We made it!! The 'first class' tourist bus was still running despite the strikes and so we enjoyed a no problemo 9hour bus journey to Cusco. Stopping at 4300 meters this is the highest we have ever been and your head told you that it was about to explode! At this altitude we were not thinking properly and Jonny bought an Alpaca jumper! Dosen't even look good on him - Brucester you can have it! There were lots of other sites we stopped at and were given little history lessons along the way. Very interesting!

Cusco is beautiful but wet! We are really in awe of the Plaza de Armas (the central square of S.American towns) and the gorgeous buildings. But ... its carnaval here. This means they throw around water bombs, buckets of water, squirty foam and (fortunately for us, not experienced yet) eggs, flour, manure and rotten veg.
It's quite fun for the locals but as tourists without 'ammunition' we feel quite 'got at'. On the way Nat was hit by a water bomb and we all got covered in some foam although Nat took the brunt and got some in her eyes. A mother with her 4 children beckoned us across the road from their car and then pulled up and soaked us! Not the best way to welcome the tourists!
Arriving at the restaurant today, having taken a taxi for just two blocks, we found we were in the wrong place and so dashed, commando style, to the correct street only to find that if you wanted a roast dinner you had to book the day before! Do'h!! So after some more commando style peering round corners we ended up at a very western restaurant and ate a grogeous lunch. Now sat in an internet cafe we are contemplating the best route back to the hostel. We may stay here and creap back under cover of darkness!


We've got a tour of Sacred valley planned for tomorrow. Having learnt our lesson in Puno we did a lap of all the tour operators and chose the most expensive (5pounds instead of 3pounds) because they had an excellet English speaking guide, had a posh bus and would give us the best service.
Yeah right - we've been done again!!! Our two british friends here did the tour yesterday (we were going to do it with them but had "tummy problems") . When they arrived they were put on the same bus as all the other tour operaters that were going to charge 3pounds. The other ammusing thing is the guide would rattle of reams in Spanish and then turn to our friends to say "look at tree on left". Ohhh a tree!!! Wow - we got them in blighty tooo!!!

Altitude puff here puff is puff .... .... ..... ..... better than puff Puno puff. Are managing to climb one set of stairs before passing out and gasping "ox..x....gen". Even moved hostel (at an expense of an extra 1pound50 per night) so we only had to climb three steps rather than puffing up 100meters of alley-way steps.

Ok here we go .... waterproof jackets donned .... we are going to brave it!
Are tactics are going to be, take taxi, hide behind old women or fight back!!!! The latter is going to be difficult as we only have a takeaway chicken sandwich as ammunition!