"I just wanted to sit down all day"

Quoting Katharine.

SO today was obviously a bit of a slow started. We had to get up and go and catch our flight so at least we got up.

Star Peru are probably the worst airline company EVER. They didn`t check our passports but they didn`t lose our bags so its all good! Aeroplane was fairly retro but we didnt experience any turbulance so there was no need for sick bags, which is a good thing since there weren`t any...

Back in Lima except this time we`re staying in a hostal called the Red Psycho Llama... courtesy of James and Nia`s choice. They`ve been hear for a couple of days already. Katharine went to bed and Will read his book on the balcony for a while.

Spent the evening chilling at the hostal since all 4 of us were all pretty knackered. The Hangover is SO good. The Spanish subtitles were not so good... Finished the night with James Bond: Live to die another day - WHO KNEW Madonna was in it!?

Katharine enters adulthood....

Tuesday

Today it was Katharine`s 21st! Woke up and Will was playing it rather cool. Sent Katharine off to the bar to get breakfast and then sneaked back to the room to get his `moneybelt` but then came back with 2 balloons and a little suprise parcel, courtesy of her Mum.

So we eat some breakfast and Katharine opened all her lovely cards and letters from various family members and then we celebrated with a birthday stale break role (no cake available). Will also gave Katharine some Llama earrings but to prevent any possible ear infections we`re going to wait until we can TCP them at home before she wears them.

We got collected from the hostal to go paragliding. First impressions weren´t great when we got picked up in a taxi whic was too small for us all (one guy had to sit in the boot....) I think we both hoped for better first impresssions from people we were about to risk our lives with. Anyway, after quite a long drive including a dirt road which MUST have destroyed the taxi we arrived at the top of a very high hill (mountain ?). So we didn`t realise but you actually need quite precise wind conditions for paragliding so we had to wait for quite a while before we even got kitted up. While we were waiting we had to listen to 3 girls from London where apparnelty it is 35 degress in the summer and pints cost only 2.50.... unfortunately we did`t find out where in London this occurs but we`re both pretty keen to go there.

Eventually it was our turn. Will had to go first and had a pretty easy takeoff. He says he could`t look down and was gripping the harness so hard he crippled his fingers but thought it was awesome. We flew over an amazing view of the Sacred Valley (see earlier blog). He then had an ultimate FAIL when landing. Either he is a retard at running or the guy landed too fast but he definitely landed flat on his face being dragged along. Although Will was worried his beautiful face may be tainted, you don`t have to worry - he escaped with a graze on his arm and leg.

Next was Katharine`s turn. So although it took about 80 times for Katharine to take off, all of which were not doing wonders for her hip, she did eventually make it into the sky. Although she was worried she might soil herself, no such disasters happened and she even says she would love to do it again! Birthday WIN!

After that we had to stop off via a Bungee jump because one of the girls was doing that too. We absolutely did not.. haha. The guy who took Will paragliding definitely sat and smoked a joint though... Katharine dealt with this very well.... haha.

The rest of the afternoon we had a leisurely lunch and prepared ourself for the night that was to come. And o what a night it was. It began at the hostal bar... we definitely sat for 15 minutes waiting for happy hour to begin... YASS. A few rounds of Pisco Sours (Pisco, lemon and egg white) and a free birthday long island iced tea and the drinking games began. Katharine competed in at least 8 rounds although Will had to take a rain check for fear of vomming and being KO`d before we`d even left. Best drinking game ever and definitely bringing it back to Edinburgh.

We headed out, first stop Mama Africa. We managed to avoid the various people selling drugs (lol?) but unfortunately Mama Africa was a bit dead so we moved on to Mythology (our old favourite). Katharine managed to get her Lady Gaga request played at last, just before she was sick on the dance floor (cheap Peruvian booze FAIL). This was only a minor blip in her performance and we continued to dance until the early hours.

21ST BIRTHDAY WIN

Bodily function WIN

A litte bit of a more productive day today as both of us managed to stay under control of all of our bodily fluids lol.

In the morning we went to Qorikancha which is supposedly on e of the best Inca sites in Cusco. Not so much. Museum has the WORST translations so negative on the understanding front. There are very few ruins to see from the outside too. Howeever (apologies the keyboard is haaving a bit of a mare) then we went inside Santa Domingo convent which was really good. It was built on top of the originial Inca site so all of the ruins are insode of the building. A little bit strange but really well preserved. Luckily also everything was in English too so Will could understand it all...good times. Some very strange contemporary art exhibitions upstairs in the convent - not sure that pictures of private parts should be ina convent. What about the monks!?

We raided the artisan market in the afternoon for lots of Peruvian artefacts. Good times. Between the two of us we will be able to set up a small Peruvian shop back at home (maybe try and earn enough money to cover what we have spent haha. The stall owners are incredibly pushy though and seeing as neither of us are particularly patient this was not a good combo!

We went out for a nice Italian meal for dinenr and had an early night to prepare ourselves for goign paragliding tomorrow for Katharine´s birthday woopwoop. Hopefully no vomming for either of us ie. minimal breakfast!

Maras and Moray

Thankfully Will woke up today looking like a new person. We met up with James and Nia (our friends from the tour who are also spending a few more days in Cusco) and decided to head to two more touristy places. Just before we were about to leave though 4 became 3 as James suddenly took a turn for the worse (it was about his turn..) and had to head back to bed.

Anyway the 3 of us got on a bus which definitely was much more similar to those we had to take in Ecuador - far too many people packed onto a very small bus with minimal functioning dashboard (i.e. only the indicators worked properly...) Bus dropped us off on the way to it´s final destination and from there we were left ot negotiate a good price with the taxi drivers to take us to Maras and Moray.

First stop was Moray which was a huge Inca terrace which Will decided was a good idea to climb all the way to the bottom - turned out that didn´t make him feel too great. Pretty impressive although Inca terraces are starting to lose their appeal ever so slightly...

Next was the Salt fields of Maras. Basically they have managed to cultivate a stream that was naturally high in salt and harvest (or grow as Katharine likes to say) the salt - really impressive! Also salty. Katharine licked some and Will managed a spectacular slip which left his left foot in the stream. Prior to this we had discussed whether or not they would get radged if you fell in... well no-one told Will off.

The bus journey back involved us having to stand for the first half since there were no seats... sad times. But we made it back eventually. Just got back from having a meal by the main square and said our goodbyes to nia and James. A reasonably early night to prepare us for a mega day of bartering tomorrow at the market.. whoop whoop!

Cusco fail

Generally bit of a fail in Cusco at the moment. We think the bbq on Frioday was abit dodge so Will is now upchucking everywhere and so me fothe other peeps we went with are also ill. Bad times. hopefully it will only be a 24hour thing .

Yesterday we visited the INCa museum which definitely wasn´t quite as good as we´d thought it was going to be. Lots of rocks, very little informtion and some displays definitely built by children. Oh wells. We spent the afternoon doing nothing in case Will vommed again (which he did lol. Katharine is being the perfect nurse at the moment hahaha.

Hoefully today will be a little more productive and we´ll get to go and OD on some more Inca ruins woop. If not no worries seeing as we are here until Wednesday!

Oh and the theatre production we went to see was one of the strangest things we have both ever seeen. Some antastic acrobatics and Peruvian dancing but for the m ost just uber strange!

A night we won´t forget but don´t really remember...

Our night out last night was well overdue so to make up for our lack of partying we really went all out. Katharine on the Pisco, Will on the Rum. After various drinking games, our friend James vomitting over the balcony and Will blocking the toilet with sick we were ready to go out... haha

Ended up at a club called Mythology (we think). Although Katharine requested Lady Gaga 5 times they didn´t play any... damn South Americans and their lack of taste in music. The free drink finished Will off so he had to call it a night slightly earlier, leaving James, Nia and Katharine to carry on partying. Will fell asleep and locked Katharine out of the room. In an attempt to wake him up Katharine was slightly too aggressive with the window and unfortunately it smashed... lol?

Anyway we eventually all got to bed after waking up most of the hotel .. bad times. Today was been spent mostly feeling slightly worse for wear. Just got back from a Peruvian BBQ which the whole group went to - our last meal together as a group. Tonight we´re heading to the theatre! Hopefully seeing some kind of Peruvian Cirque de Solei (?)! Well exciting.

Tomorrow we´ll start to slum it again in hostals like real travellers... haha

Cuzco with functioning Colons!

Turns out Cuzco is really beautiful and really great to look around when you´re body is functioning fully! Haha. However, turns out that Cuzco is not the centre of Gay Pride and that the dozens of rainbow flags flying throughout the city are actually Cuzco´s official flag!

This morning we gave ourselves a nice lie in to fully recover from our EPIC Inca Trail/Machu Pichu extravaganza. Then we headed out to explore the city. This firstly involved finding food in the form of an awesome restaurant called Jack´s cafe. After that we hopped in a taxi and headed up to see another Inca ruin called Sacsayhuaman (said "sexy-woman" haha.) Finished our visit with a look at the huge white statue of Jesus (who looks ever so slightly stoned... lol). Back down the hill in flip flops was a challenge for Will but we got back safe and sound.

Headed to the Muesum of Popular Art. Wow. Errm... yeah don´t rush out to see this unless you have a REAL fettish for nativity scene figures. But it was free so we were happy enough. We´re going to see a show in Cuzco at some point over the next two days which looks pretty awesome - we´ll let you know.

Right that´s all for now. We´re off to enjoy the luxury of the hotel and hot showers and head out for a night in Cuzco. Rum and Pisco to the ready!!!