Tenemos un refriado

Hola todos After all of the vaccinations and medications we are packing, you will all be interested to know that we have succumb to sickness here in SA. With what you may ask, well the common cold obviously! The only thing you cant vaccinate aggainst! We both woke up very sniffly and were feeling very sorry for ourselves. We started the morning with breakfast at the hotel, as well as dropped off our first round of clothes to be laundered by the hotel. Even though we were sick, we decided that we would still venture out and see more of the city, however, everything that we wanted to see was over an hour walk away and public transport isn't really that great here. Instead we did a bit of shopping and walked around for a bit, then we had lunch at a local restaurant where I got to try my first local delicacy, ceviche. Ceviche is pretty much raw fish in lemon juice and chilli, served with corn and yams! Very acidic but so so yummy. Steve opted for the grilled chicken instead, less adventurous in my opinion! The serving sizes were once again huge, and I again wasn't able to finish it. After lunch we wandered back to the hotel and decided that it would be best for both of us if we just rested. After watching animal planet in Spanish for a few hours (all the tv programs are dubbed in Spanish here and you are lucky to find one that isn't) We wandered down to the reception to meet our tour group and leader!! Our tour leader is called Carol, and she is a born and bread Limanos!! Her english is perfect with that wonderful Peruvian accent and I took an instant liking to her! I'm sure we will get along just fine. She has already encouraged me to practice my Spanish with her, which I fully intend to do in every opportunity, that is if I am not to embarrassed to!! The rest of the tour group seem really good, except for one lady who has already gotten on my nerves!! I already foresee that she is gonna be a right pain in the bum the whole time. Lucky that there is 12 of us(I only met 6 of them tonight ) otherwise it would be hell. Interestingly enough, only 4 of us on the whole tour got the permits to do the Inca trail (only 500 people can start the trail on any one day by law) the rest are either doing the quarry pass tail, which is a day shorter, or just staying in cuzco for the whole time (the annoying woman didn't get an inca permit. Woohoo!!!). Machu picchu seems to be the highlight for most of us in this trip. After our meeting Carol took us to a local restaurant for dinner. Since we had had a large lunch, Steve and I only had a small meal, but it's was so good. Like spring rolls with a chicken curry in them. Yummy. After dinner we just wandered back to the hotel. We ventured into the pharmacy with Carol before we went to bed, so she could help us get some cold and flu stuff (Steve is in so much pain around his sinuses) and now, tired and sniffly I'm going to bed! Tomorrow we leave for Pisco. Am looking forward to trying the regions signature drink, the Pisco Sour, which apparently can be quite strong! Looking forward to it. Escribo pronto!