Quito and Cuscotopia.

Sorry for the lengthy gap in updates, we should have done this before we left on our trail but these things happen...

We did manage to realise our plans in Quito and see the Teleferico and the beautiful view over the whole of Quito. We also managed to venture into the amusement park at it´s base and go karting. It was awesome! Haven´t driven in a while but both of us managed not to spin out! That evening we left Quito for Lima, where we spent the night in the airport for our 5am flight to Cusco.

On arrival at 7am in Cusco, we went straight to our chosen hostel, Suecia II, and checked in to a double room and slept until the early afternoon. We decided it was time to explore this beautiful city that we had found ourselves in. We arrived in Cusco 3 days before our trek to Machu Picchu began. We had to acclimatise to the elevation, 13000ft above sea level. This also meant that we were not smoking and drinking, so no falling off boats and late night rum sessions!

Cusco is an amazing city, so much history and lots of interesting architecture. The main square, Plaza de Armas, has 3 churches and 1 cathedral squeezed into 2 of it´s sides, all with differing styles, many of the buildings mix original Inca foundations with the more modern Colonial style. Also, littered across the city, there are original Inca walls and foundations, some of which have withstood over 500 hundred years of use and even a major earthquake in 1650 - we later learned just how ingenious the Inca engineers were, most designs include an incline of at least 3 degrees and some of Machu Picchu is actually built on rollers!

After 3 days of exploring it was time to go for our briefing for our trek. As it turns out, we were in a very large group, 16 people. What made this even more interesting is that along with the 16 apying customers, we had 2 guides, 1 chef and 21 porters. Giving a total group size of 40! We were definitly in for an interesting time.

Photos for the rest of Quito, Cusco and thgen the Inca trail to follow.... another couple hundred!