Cuzco

Cuzco at last, the bus ride was beautiful but looong, coming over the Andes there was so much snow we had to wait often and drive extremely slowly when we could, the bus was 8 hours late!!!
But I am getting ahead of myself.
From Iquitos our Amazon boat trip took 6 instead of five days, it was fantastic, the sunrises and sunsets were sensational, the misty mornings were full of atmosphere and inevitably cleared to clear hot days. the dolphins accompanying the boat were playful and the birds flying around in great squawking colourful flocks were amazing. we slung our hammocks and made friends with our near neighbours who really spoke no English so I got to practice my pitiful Spanish which as a result is much improved, most of our time was spent chatting to a couple of 16 year old boys who had more patience as they liked the opportunity to try to learn some English, apparently they learn English in school for five years, I suspect the schools here are not very good!!! The little towns we pulled in at (and the ones we didn't are really picturesque, folk in dug out canoes paddle past with boats full of bannanas or fish in amongst the reeds, women wash there clothes in the brown waters, how that makes anything clean is beyond me! Suffice to say after 6 days I was hugely relieved to sleep in a flat bed and have a shower in something that was not murky Amazon river water.
Pucallpa the town the boat left me in is really not much to write about, it had a beautiful cathedral, modern in design with fabulous stained glass panels all around the arched doorway, it was lovely when illuminated at night but my camera is not that good and Bec had her memory card stolen on the boat by a boy she befriended (I didn't like him right from the start and by the time we discovered that I knew why).
So we didn't hang around we caught a bus back to Lima where we stayed (due to lack of opportunity to leave right away)in Miraflores this time, very touristy but with ocean views and a chance for me to go to the cinema. I saw the new Mike Leigh film "Happy go lucky" which Michael had said the main character was not unlike me (I can see his point) One of the leads I was surprised to discover was a friend of mine from Thailand's brother (small world). I also saw the latest Harry Potter film, which I enjoyed but I suspect it's at the stage now where only addicts (poor sad addicts like me)like it.
So back to the bus ride, the coast of Peru is quite beautiful, if only God would choose to exhale and blow away the constant grey that hangs in the sky over that part of the world for 6 - 8 months of the year, mind you when that happens the bare rolling sand dunes would no doubt be unbearably hot as there really is no shelter.
The road through the Andes follows a rolling river, the hillsides are littered with small cascading waterfalls and llamas in the snow are something you really ought to see!

Finally in Cuzco, the city is really pretty, full of cobbled streets, wrought iron black standing street lamps and old stone buildings, Inka ruins being dug up in back alleys and on street corners.






Cuzco is cool, it has lots of character, but it is still full of dodgy characters, like the restaurant hawker Bec took to calling "rank-o" he was about the sleaziest person I think (well actually it was both with the restaurant a distant second), he accosted us with such stunning lines as "just lie back, you'll enjoy it" and "your a sexy lady" ooooooooo, so gross!!! I can't believe this approach actually works on anybody!
Anyway, moving right along, as the less time spent dwelling on "rank-o" guy the better. Machu Picchu is in deed "all that" we caught various forms of transport up to Aqua Calientes which is a very cute little town, but terribly touristy, (hard to believe, but even more so than the rest of Peru) the next morning woke at the crackers of dawn to get up to the complex, by this stage we were so over the whole experience of Peru, Machu Picchu was really going to have to be pretty fantastic. Peru is bizarre, they have had tourists or so long but there seems to be not a professional among the bunch, their attitude is a discomforting combination of blaise lack of interest and plain incompetence. But... Machu Picchu is all that" from the moment you get into the complex it is stunning scenery and history brought to life, it's an incredible experience! Truly an occassion to save the kiwi favourite "awesome" for. You really have to experience it for yourself to know just what it's all about. We met some lovely people and I indeed had a play with my poi, possibly Machu Picchu's inaugaral poi! the llama's were cute, we returned again by death defying roads to Cuzco and await the four day hike from hell to Choquequirao which we start on Monday.

As a side diversion today we went to the cementary in Cuzco which is amazing a whole community for the dead, the murals on the outside are beautiful, the coffins are piled on top of each other in streets of high-rises, it's really unusual, full of loved ones polishing graves, changing flowers or just praying for their ancestors it has the atmosphere of a mini village, a strange combination seemingly of catholicism and a kind of oriental ancestor worship.