Cusco, Peru

We arrive into Cusco around 2pm. We go for a wander with our backpacks on. Not really sure where the hostel is, since we don't have a map or internet. We are a little nervous about the altitude. Cusco is at 3500 meters and can take your breath away apparently.

We get a cab, again fixed price. Driver say 5 soles ($2) and I say sold. We check in, feeling pretty strange. Light headed, slightly out of breath. But we aren't sick at all.

We try and find the travel company for our Inca trek to pay the remaining money. We get lost, so it's another 5 soles cab across town.

Back to the hostel and to bed. Cusco is 3 hours behind Rio. We blame our exhaustion on that and sleep.

Day 2

Pretty lazy day today. We are trying to put some in the bank ready for the trek starting tomorrow.

During breakfast we're accosted by the usual locals trying to sell us everything from paintings to weed. One guy tried to sell us some musical instruments that we could neither play nor get back into the country. After Jeff gave him a couple of soles for his performance he asks for either more money or 'how about your wife?' . Jeff politely declined, the performer then offered 4 soles to take me off his hands. I guess we're doing ok with our budget as Jeff did not think this was a good deal either. A few soles more maybe...

We need to do some shopping for camping gear. Just about every shop in Cusco appears to be able to help us out here.

We spend around $250 aud and get 2 heavy duty "the north face" jackets, 2 head lamps, 2 ponchos, a bag and a stack of snacks.

We attend the briefing for the trek. No real surprises here. Our main concern is our lack of hiking shoes. The guide says we should be ok. If it rains, we'll be getting wet feet though. Fingers crossed.

As soon as we leave the briefing Courts comes down with some "altitude" sickness that we quickly find out is actually food poisoning. She is up till midnight purging the scrambles eggs from the morning. We get 3 hours sleep. Great preparation Haha.