Here I am in Cusco way up high in altitude terms but so far I've not had any side effects. Walking along the street you get a bit more out of breath than normal, but thankfully no headaches or anything worse. Am not a fan of the cocoa tea as it looks and in my opinion tastes like mud, but other people have been lapping it up.
Best bits so far:
1) I managed to make it through Lima airport without becoming a drugs mule.
2) My driver to the hotel was a complete crack up. Apparently the city is in the shape of a puma and he took great pleasure in telling me when we were driving through the Puma tail, the head and of course the balls. Welcome to Cusco!
3) The hotel is wonderful, it was a monastery and has been restored to be mega luxurious. The staff all speak amazing English and this morning one of the waiters told me how his Mum is a massive fan of Susan Boyle. The random Scottish connections just keep on coming.
4) I am no longer the only gringa around as the town is full of tourists. I feel a lot safer as even if there are pickpockets etc they've got much easier pickings than me, eg the woman in the local market with a huge Louis V bag or the guy in the main square counting his money into his wife's hand.
5) The hotel arranged a driver to take me out to Pisaq Sunday markets which were amazing. Lovely guy called Jorge who stopped off along the way so I could take pictures and was there waiting for me after a couple of hours at the market.
6) I'm single handedly helping the economy with all the alpaca stuff I'm buying - it is all gorgeous.
7) Not such a fan of bartering at the markets and stalls but its a must as the first price is definitely the dumb tourist price. You can generally get the stuff for a lot lower, almost 70% but a part of me thinks they need it more than I do. I've been getting it down to the "this gringa speaks Spanish and is very polite so we'll give her something off" price. The Latin American tourists however go hard on the bartering.
8) Have been getting daily massive slabs of pineapple from the street vendors which is beyond yum.
9) The weather in Cusco is a little odd. One minute the sun is shining ( so much that my nose is like a beacon) and then the heavens open and its pouring down. Then it clears again. I haven't yet managed to dress appropriately for a whole day, especially the day there was a massive hail storm and it was bouncing off the pavements.
10) The main square has been great for people watching. There's been a marathon that finished there, a dancing procession with the women in full traditional costumes and a military parade. All in 3 days!
11)The taxi driver into town from the airport asked if I was from Chile...now either he wanted a massive tip or my Spanish is getting less rusty!
The trip to Machu Picchu needs its own story as it was that amazing....watch this space!
