Uno mas sueno

Hola todos. We stared our free day in Cusco with an early visit to the Inca Museum. We hired a tour guide, who was a young guy who needed to practice his English (even though his English was far superior to my Spanish), and he lead us around the museum, explaining the evolution of the Incan empire, up until the invasion of the Spaniards. For such an amazingly intelligent empire, I am surprised that they only lasted a bit over 100 years. The whole museum was fascinating though. After the tour, we wandered around the streets looking at the local markets. Cusco is famous for its silver, and there are many shops I would like to stop at when we get our next free day. Ater buying some souvenirs, and a quick lunch, we met some of the group at the hotel and joined a half day tour of the city and the nearby inca ruins. It was like we were back in school, with the flag being held up by the tour leader as we were led around the cathedral and the Temple of the Sun ( which is right outside our hotel). It was so busy with tourists doing similar tours to us, in a variety of different languages, and when we walked around the Temple of the Sun, it was just making us frustrated how the Incans had made such beautiful temples to their gods, only to have the Spaniards destroy them and steal all the gold and jewels! Poor incas! When we finally made it to our tour bus ( there were millions of them) and drove out to see the ruins which are 15 mins outside of town, we had all had enough of the crowds, and by the 4th ruin, which was actually the most interesting, it was getting very dark! We were also forced to stop at an alpaca shop on the way back to town, conveniently aimed at stinging the tourists! After finally reaching our hotel after this tour (believe me, we were all glad when it was over) we collected our laundry, sleeping bags and walking poles, and started packing for the trek tomorrow. We are each allowed to bring 1 6kg duffle bag, which is carried by porters, and one day bag which we obviously carry. Steve and I had no probs with the weight restriction, but some of the others were a bit stressed out. We went to dinner at a great Peruvian restaurant, where I tried a local cuisine with duck. Steve had a steak ( typical!) then after a quick stop off at the supermarket, we headed home to finish packing. The air is full of excitement for the trek tomorrow. We are being picked up at 5:20am sharp,and tomorrow is a 12km walk, which they call the training day so they can see how good we can walk. The second day however is around 14kms, practically all up hill. Hard core. The third day is a 10 km walk all down hill, and we are expected to arrive at the campsite at 1pm. after that we have a free arvo to relax! The final day we wake at around 3:40am and will walk the remaining distace into Machu Pitchu, through the infamous sun gate! There, we will have a guided tour for 2 hours, then will have a lot of spare time to explore! Very exciting! Obviously, I will not be blogging until I arrive back in Cusco of Friday, so wish us luck on our great Incan adventure!!! Better get some sleep now, got a long few days ahead!