Dear all... After a hectic bus trip between Puno and Cusco where we had the most dangerous overtaking of this one year trip (very close to an accident), we arrived in beautiful Cusco!! There are so much to see & do here... Lots of Inca ruins but it is worth noting most of the Inca stuff were replaced by Catholic churches and cathedrals built by the Spaniards... Very nice as well but shame the Inca heritage is now barely visible in the old Inca capital...however there is one thing the colons didn't find... And stayed intact... The famous Maccu Picchu which was built by Incas around 1450.. This site was visited by an American called Bigham Hiram in 1911 and he convinced National Geographic to come back to do a full expedition & take more pictures for the world to discover this WONDER of the World... And it worked!! Since then millions & millions of people went to see Maccu Picchu... And we can say now we are one of them!! We decided to climb to the site from Aguas Calientes starting at 5.30amish with hundreds and hundreds of stairs... Waouhh...so tiring! We were very fast as well as we were very keen to arrive... But when we arrived... Big queue with all the people who came by bus:( A bit frustrating!! But we soon forgot this to watch the sun rise above the East mountains and to lighten up Maccu Picchu slowly! What a great time!! We then had the great idea to climb the big mountain above Maccu Picchu which is called Maccu Picchu Montana... And this was not a piece of cake especially after the morning climb!! Anyway after 1hour and 20 minutes and a tiny bit of water left, we reached the top of this mountain!! We were spoilt with a great view all over the mountains, glaciers and Maccu Picchu which looks tiny from the top... And there you realise how crazy it was in 1450 to build such a city on top of a mountain and entirely made of rocks!! It is so cleverly done with water drainage system, irrigation, agricultural terraces...etc that you think we would have had a lot to learn from the Incas!! As you can imagine, this was a special day even if the site is full of tourists (2500 per day currently and up to 6,000 in July)!!! We took the panoramic train back to Cusco very very tired but the head full of nice pictures!! Cusco is the perfect place to relax and enjoy proper Peruvian food (llama meat, fried guinea pig, ceviche, quinoa salad...etc) as well as our usual standards (lamb kebab and lots of other great burgers...ahahahah)! Check out our pics under the usual sections: Bolivia/Peru, Portraits, Foodies and See and Contact Us.
Next stop is Cartagena in Columbia and the Caribbean coast.. Can't wait to feel the heat and swim in the sea... It's been a long time now we haven't been to the beach... Well 2 months since New Zealand!!
