One of the reasons for heading to cusco at this stage was that we had yet to make a decision as to whether or not we were up to the 5 day trek that gets you to Macchu Picchu and also that we had heard rumours from other travellers that the crowds were so big that some days the trains were fully booked for 3 or 4 days in advance, especially on weekends. As we had been travelling to a very loose itinerary that was out of the window completely now in terms of matching the dates with the places we wanted to get to we did see this as a good opportunity to get more information and even to lock in some dates for Macchu Picchu as seeing this was the original motivation to choose this part of the world to visit.
We stayed at Hostal Suencia II - which is near the main Plaza de Aramas (I must find out who or what Aramas is as there seemed to be a plaza with this name in every place we went). We got our train tickets for the scenic railway to Aguas Calientes which is the nearest town to Macchu Picchu, explored Cusco and got an idea of what we would do when returned, Climbed to the mandatory statue of Jesus at a lookout over the town then organised a night bus to Nazca and tickets for a "fly over" of the famous Nazca lines.
