Lima to Cusco

Embarking on the Adventure from Lima to Cusco

A quick drive to the airport today despite busy roads. Then an hour flight for Cusco. Water/liquid allowed on flights in South American countries so security was pretty fast.

The guide seems very good both as an organiser and for his knowledge. Also quite funny.

The First View of Cusco: Nature Meets Culture

Once in Cusco he took as on a tour. It was a chance to see some of the remains of the Inca buildings as well as churches built by the Spaniards. There was also a Christmas market. The city is amazing, surrounded by mountains and one of the highest cities in the world. It's over 3000 metres high. We both felt a bit dizzy and light headed but hoping we aren't impacted worse by the altitude. We are drinking plenty of water to try to counter it. We do have some anti-altitude tablets but keen to avoid if we can as side effects can be worse.

The city is quite busy but very colourful with lots of traditional dress. The food in Peru seems cheap after the last 2 countries which is good for the budget. We spent £34 for 2 courses each plus drink and it was a fancy organic farm to plate place. Alpaca eaten, next to try is guinea pig.

The day was warm. Very dramatic skies and we had lightening on the horizon. A few drops of rain but nothing to worry us. Once the sun went down it got quite nippy but a lovely place to wander, check out Christmas lights and browse the shops.

Horse-riding

Tomorrow is horse-riding so will be interesting to see how that goes. Hopefully it won't get rained off at this attempt.

As we still have limited internet, so another update. The horse-riding was fine, with no injuries.

We rode for about 2 and 1/4 hours with a couple of breaks to look at few Inca sites. The scenery was amazing and they had horses for beginners so I felt safe although the first riding session was a bit stressful. I did enjoy it but don't think it's something I will rush to do again.

This afternoon we joined another couple for a guruwalk around Cusco. It was excellent a lovely guide and he told as loads about the Incas and Spanish (quite nice for it not to be the British being dodgy rulers). With a guide it really showed what a great town it is to walk round. Think plenty more to see when we come back here after Machu Pichu.