Tuesday 21st September - Cuzco
One more day of running around getting things sorted out for the next week in Cuzco . First up, we headed to the train ´station´ where you ´book´ your tickets as opposed to the one where you catch the train from. We paid in US dollars as that is as popular a currency as the local Peruvian Sole. We grabbed lunch of bread, soup, spaghetti, chicken, chips, rice, salad and drinks for both of us and all for less than a pound each. There were lots of great gift ideas at the local markets we browsed through and most at ridiculous prices. We bought ourselves 2 plane tickets back to Lima next week and also bought ´tourist tickets´ which allows access to 16 different sites and museums in and around Cuzco. We went to an African restaurant this evening called Mandela´s which was a really funky place playing an African beat version of Pink Floyd´s ´Dark Side of the Moon´ album - the food was really excellent too. Since leaving Ilha Grande last week we´ve both got what seems like mild versions of heat rash - it can pretty itchy and irritating

Wednesday 22nd September
Breakfast in bed was a nice treat for us and all part of the service here . Our ´City Tour´ commenced with a half hour of driving around the main square 6 times until we picked up all of our passengers - the idea of a ´central´ pick-up point for all to save time and effort seems distant to tour companies in South America. Even more strangely once we finally got going our first stop was about 2 minutes walk from the place we´d got picked up from 40 minutes before! Anyway, our first stop was known as ´The Temple of the Sun´ which after being a place of solar worship by the Incas was turned into a church by the Spanish colonisers - some of the Inca architecture is still there though the more recently built and whitewashed walls somehow make it lose it´s sense of historical importance. The Temple contained many temples in Inca times, the original Inca walls can still be seen (which have survived earthquakes whilst the colonial buildings haven´t!) The walls were once coated in gold an inch thick and the temples contained numerous gold ornaments. All the gold was removed, melted down and taken to Spain when the Spanish arrived in the 15th century . Next up was a place called ´Sacsayhuaman´ - it´s a vast series of huge walls and terraces built in the hills above Cuzco. It was once an Inca palace but the Spanish called it a forte and used it to battle the Incas. They then covered it in earth so only the bottom wall was exposed when the archeologists arrived in the 1900´s. By this time we´d realised that every tour company in town runs the same scheduled tour at the same time thus causing general mayhem everywhere we stopped - we tried explaining the logic of running one at a unique time but our guide seemed unmoved that this might be a good idea! A placed called ´Qengo´ was up next with it´s emphasis on zig-zags and thunder/lightning imagery but we didn´t see much of it apart from the big rocks in the ground. ´Tambo Machay´ was last up with it´s underground water supply and irrigation system built by the Incas and springs that you can still see today. By this time the hawkers and sellers were becoming a very familiar presence with their ponchos, arts and crafts and general nik-naks . We were glad to get home as the day had turned cool and dark and we were still wearing our sandals! We were persuaded to try Mexican tonight along the infamous ´Gringo Alley´ (street full of desperate locals begging you to buy their stuff) with the offer of 4 glasses of wine and nachos all for free!

Thursday 23rd September - Cuzco to Aqua Calientes
Up at 5.15am for breakfast before getting a taxi to the train station to catch the 6.15am ´Backpacker´ train to Aquas Calientes, the town 6km from Machu Picchu. One hour into the journey after zig zagging up the hills, through rural Peru - houses hilt from mud bricks, pigs, chickens and goats roaming outside. We reached Poroy station after an hour where a sign tells us it´s 17km to Cuzco and 93 to Machu Picchu! We finally make it to Aquas Calientes ("Hot Springs") at about 10.30am to be greeted by the hawkers on the main street - the train line runs straight down the main street of the town. After viewing a grim and poky place, the 2nd place was fine so we took it . Aquas Calientes is full of restaurants that all do pizzas and trout as specialities. We settled for vegetarian fare whilst listening to Abba´s Greatest Hits on the stereo. Aquas Calientes is set in amazing mountainous surroundings with sheer vertical rocks faces. A river cuts through the middle of it. The men and boys of the place seem mostly involved in building work and this means you regularly see them carrying huge loads on their backs. We bought our bus tickets to get to Machu Picchu and our entry passes to save the hassle of getting them tomorrow. Whilst enjoying a local beer Derek started playing the waiter at chess and was soundly beaten 3 times so he gave up. The little boy in the restaurant when we were there was helping to give us Spanish lessons too! We turned in early after eating dinner - Derek was telling the waiter there that Sue was his wife (éspaso´) but somehow the waiter thought he was ordering asparagus soup!

Friday 24th September - Macchu Picchu to Aqua Calientes to Cuzco
Another early start to catch the 6 .30am bus to Machu Picchu. Bought some nice plastic ponchos on the way to the bus in case of rain during the day. We only bought limited clothes with us as we left most of our stuff back at the hotel in Cuzco so didn´t have any coats with us. (It hasn´t rained for so long we´d forgotten that it can!) The bus took a zig zag route up the mountainside to our destination. As we walked through the entrance we saw a few ´storage buildings´ in front of us. We took the zig zag path up to the ´caretakers building´ and there before us lay the magnificent site of Machu Picchu stretching out below us. What a marvel that this city was built in such a remote place all those years ago, and so high up. The place certainly does have the ´wow´ factor. We had considered getting our own guide bus as there were none to be found at the site entrance (despite the Tourist Information telling us that there would be yesterday!) we walked around with our leaflet and Lonely Planet as our guides. After 2.5 hours of admiring the sites we started our descent back to Aquas Calientes - deciding to walk back rather than take the bus as we had plenty of time . We walked half of the way down the zig zag road taken by the bus and could see Machu Picchu perched high on the mountainside above us. We then found steps as a shortcut back to Aquas Calientes - the journey taking about 1.5 hours in total - glad it was downhill! The plastic ponchos came in handy as there were a couple of light showers on the way back and a heavier one as we got closer to home. First stop was a pizza restaurant next to the rail track for a well deserved lunch. A couple of Canadians next to us told us how hard the 4 day Inca Trek was - so maybe we´re glad we took the easy option but also considering what we´ve missed out on too! The Peruvian answer to the Orient Express went by as we ate - the 5* holiday makers we guess. Back up the hill to collect our overnight bags from the hostel, stopped off for drinks where we found a recent UK version of ´Hello´ magazine - an interesting read when you´ve been deprived of English magazines/papers for what seems like so long!

Saturday 25th September - Cuzco
The train journey back to Cuzco yesterday took 4 .5 hours so we only had energy to go back to our hotel and not bother venturing out. Today we had a lazy morning with breakfast in bed again (it did take 4 attempts mind!) and watching a film called ´Captives´ with Tim Roth. We chatted with Sue´s Mum and Dad on the phone, had our lunch and finally managed to start reading our email again after 4 unsuccssful days of trying! There was a big town celebration for a local school, that was founded 100 years ago in Cuzco´s main square - we saw it all pass by as we sat on the balcony of a pub sipping beer and wine. For dinner we ate some spicy Indian and Thai dishes in a cafe 3 doors from our hotel. We have both been bitten again in the last couple of days - we´re hoping that upon leaving here it will be the last of the mosquitos!

Sunday 26th September
Today was our ´tour of the Sacred Valley´ - after Wednesday´s trip with the same company we had our doubts and we weren´t disappointed! After 3 laps of the town square we were on our way - we shared most of our journey, down the back of the bus, with a Scottish man and his New Zealand wife and 3 kids . Our first stop was a small market on the way. As we only had about 15 mintues there we didn´t have enough time to browse for the ponchos we wanted to buy. Next stop was a much bigger market but this time we had 25 mintues to ourselves - only problem was it was about a 10 minute walk to the centre so we only had time to buy some corn on the cob! Next up was the Inca/Qecha area of Pisac. This area was a huge valley with a long climb up (on foot) and down to the walls, stones and carvings at the top. By the time we got back to the bus it was time for lunch - it took us an hour to get there and we opted for the place accross the road instead of the recommended tour guide place which was apparently ´cheap and healthy´ - ours turned out to be just as healthy and even cheaper still. One we drove (along with all the other busloads doing exactly the same route at exactly the same time despite the fact that the markets and the sites are open all day!) to the fortress of Ollantaytambo - another steep climb up rocky steps to a place thought to be maybe even more sacred than Machu Picchu itself . By this time we were becoming ´ruined out´ and thought we were going home - but there was one more 15 minute stop in the ´bartering market´ in Chincheros which also harboured a rather picturesque church on top of the hill. This evening we went to a restaurant we´d noticed a couple of nights ago and it turned out to be the best restaurant we´d been to in the whole of South America - tastefully presented food more like a classy restaurant at home but with stupidly low prices.

Monday 27th September
Up early again, this time for another white-water rafting trip after our 1st one in New Zealand a few weeks ago. As is usual by now we spent the best part of an hour driving round and hanging around a small area picking up just 5 more people. 2 of the people were Dutch on a mountain biking trek so we dropped them off and picked them up again later. The other 3 were Casey from San Fransisco and Eric and Carla from Israel who lived there for 40 years but were originally from South Africa and New York respectively . We were soon struggling into our wet suits and on-board our ´raft´. The first half hour seamed to be more ´messing about on the river´ than ´white water´. It soon picked up though and the 3 different boats concentrated more on negotiating the rocks than splashing each with their paddles. It was all over too quickly after about 1.5 hours but we´d had fun. As struggled with changing our clothes in the bus and on the public roadside Derek realised he´d left not 1 but 2 tops back where we´d changed before getting onto the raft - we went back after having our picnic lunch but they were gone - Sue was not impressed and Derek didn´t feel too good about it either! We arranged to meet up with the others after we´d done some late night shopping - the ponchos we wanted were there but one was for a child so we changed that for a big one in a different colour. We met the other rafters as planned and headed back to the ´Inca Fe´ restaurant from last night. We were the last to leave and split up about midnight as the rest of the guys had early starts tomorrow .

Tuesday 28th September
Sue had wrapped the ponchos in boxes last night so we headed off for the post office this morning. After checking the prices with TNT and the post office we headed to TNT only to find they had quoted us in dollars and not soles (3.5 time dearer). It turned out the post office was stupidly expensive anyway so we decided to bring the stuff with us and post it when we get to Canada instead! Derek phoned his Mum with the card that LAN Chile had given us last weekend to cancel our hotel (which was unsuccessful anyway). He thought he´d have about 2 minutes left and was very surprised when told he could speak for 55 minutes! So he talked for half an hour and when we got to the airport in Cusco we phoned again for another 25 minutes so Sue could chat too! We sitting in Lima airport now with about 6 hours left until our flight to Canada via Dallas takes off - next stop Vancouver!