The fitful sleep on the bus was somewhat made up for by the fact that we woke up to this.


The Andes are absolutely beautiful, and I was amazed at every turn (and there were a lot of them) at the natural beauty here, and the hardworking nature of it's people. We saw many farmers using bulls to till their land.



One of the things I found surprising about the trip was the lack of stops. The only planned stops were to pick up more passengers in Ica, Nazca and somewhere else whose name escapes me right now. However, a lady on the bus didn't deal well with the motion sickness and barfed outside the bathroom while T was inside, necessitating a stop to clean out the bus. Thankfully they stopped quickly enough and cleaned thoroughly enough that the bus didn't smell! If it had, I might have been the next!

The lack of stops led C to decide he was going to quit smoking. He figured he'd probably pick it up again as soon as we got to Cuzco though.

The remainder of the bus trip was spent watching more old movies on loud, and playing Bingo! Much to my surprise, it was a fabulous way to learn the Spanish numbers. T can now count convincingly to 75.


When we finally arrived in Cuzco, we shared a cab with C to my favorite B&B so far, Hotel Andenes el Cielo. The rooms are comfortable and warm, we had plenty of hot water to shower, and not only were there feather duvets, but also thick wool (and potentially even alpaca!) blankets. Though my favorite part was the not one but two thick fluffy pillows, a rarity here, I've learned. T and I went up to the rooftop terrace with some coca tea to enjoy the view of Cuzco while Javier, the hotel owner, took our bags to out room. I really can't stress enough how amazing this place is!

Once we were settled and showered, we went for a walk to the Plaza de Armas, the main square in Cuzco. I have never been offered more massages in a 20 minute period than I was for the walk to and around the Plaza! It seems as though they're a jot commodity here. We also ran into 3 traditionally dressed women with 3 baby goats, which we (mostly T though) had to have her picture taken with. After the photos were taken, they informed us it was going to be 10 Soles for the picture. When I gave them some of my change, they reinformed me that it was going to be 10 Soles EACH, which we gawked at, gave them the remainder of my change, told them we had no more, and continued on our way to the Plaza de Armas
.

We had to get to the Peru Treks office to pay the remainder of our balance for the trek, and for our trek briefing by 5pm. But before we went, we had to go to the bank to get some American dollars. Thankfully T was able to figure out how to bypass the random blue screen with some numbers on it. Then for some reason, the machine we went to would only give me a portion of the money I needed. Thankfully, Peru treks also accepts Soles. The briefing for the trek just made me more excited for it!

After we finished there, we found a beautiful patio and had tea and coffee. I even splurged for a fizzy water! While we were there we were approached by many merchants trying to sell their goods. None, however, were as cute as the girl trying to sell us dolls. When we said "lo siento" (i'm sorry) she said "no lo siento, i give you better price". T loved her persistence and wanted to take her home, rather than the dolls, but we figured that might be child trafficking and a bad idea.