After arriving in Cuzco at 8.30pm, we dropped our bags in the homely El Tuco hostel, before going out for a few drinks. The club we went to offered free Salsa lessons and 2 for 1 cocktails before 11, but it really picked up after 12, plus there were loads of tourists there. I wasn't really up for it though, exhausted from the bus trip, and headed home at about 2 am.
The following morning, we left the hostel at 9.30 for a walking tour of the city. The cultural centre of Peru, it has distinct colonial charm. After seeing a small artisanal market, we walked round some of the most important Catholic Churches in the city, as well as the Cathedral and the Convent, which was built on top of the Incan temples of the Sun and the Moon. We then walked down to a general market, where I bought quails eggs, hard boiled, from a street vendor who was walking round with a small cage with three quails and several trays of eggs, and a tub of these cooked eggs. Very random, but really surprisingly tasty!
Inside the market, we were amazed by the size of it, far bigger than any other we'd seen. We came across one stall selling everything from cacti to crocodile skulls; I bought a packet of coca cigarettes and a few other cigs that contained a wierd smelling thing from the jungle which is supposed to be a hallucinogenic.
Following the tour, I spent a couple of hours online before going on a tour of the Sun and Moon temple with Kerry. The Incan temples of the Sun, Moon, Stars, Rainbow and Lightning were all stripped of their gold and valuable by the Spanish conquistadores before they built a convent on top in order to begin the conversion of the indigenous to Catholicism.
After the Temple tour, we returned to the hostel for our preliminary briefing regarding the Inca Trail... Tomorrow we were to take a bus to the Sacred Valley, before starting the Inca Trail the following day at 7.30am.
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