Cuzco, Peru

Awoke still tired and a bit sore from the big day yesterday and made our way for breakfast about 10am. Today we had to checkout of our hostel as they were fully booked, but we were only moving a short distance around the corner to their other hostel so not too bad...except that they wouldn't let us check in until 1pm so we were stuck with no home for a few hours. Eventually we agreed to take a bus ride to Pisaq in the Sacred Valley about an hour and a half away and take anoher 'easy' hike up to the lookout over the town and some more Inka ruins. The town of Pisaq was very nice, quite small but much less crowded and more authentic than Aguas Calientes. We had a nice lunch on a rooftop terrace in town and then set off on the hike. We soon realised this wasn't going to be an 'easy' walk, in fact it was incredibly steep in places and a total uphill climb of over 300 metres (which after yesterday was much tougher than it might otherwise have been). I complained a lot along the way and I don't think Sandra enjoyed the climb much either, but once we got up there I think the view made up for it and I am very glad we made the effort (with the benefit of hindsight of course). The walk down was much easier and then within only a minute of looking for transport back to Cuzco we were collected by a bus and were on our way. These buses are incredibly cheap for such a long ride at only 2.40 soles (less than A$1), I really don't know how they do it.

That night we had dinner overlooking the Plaza de Armas which had been transformed with stage and lighting equipment for the beggining of the centenary of Machu Picchu celebrations. The whole square was packed with people getting into the spirit (and the spirits), and to our pleasant suprise the majority were locals not tourists and genuinely excited by the festive atmosphere. After dinner Sandra and I explored on foot briefly but were we both dead tired so it wasn't a late one.