Cusco

Sexy Woman at "Sexy Woman"
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Thought we would try to clear some of the backlog of entries we have accumulated over the past few weeks.

Cusco is one of the most nicely maintained cities we have visited so far and so chock a block full of tourists you could be forgiven for forgetting you are even in South America.  Of the things to see and do there it really depends what your into...you could comfortably go out every night and not see anything historical and have a great time, but there is also many historical inca sights surrounding the place and some buildings are built on top of previous inca strong holds.

Jo, a llama, a lamb and two grumpy ladies.
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Of course we tried to find a happy medium between both approaches and did a fair job of it.  Going out was easy.....Tuesday night at Bar7 was always a guaranteed good time and had to be seen to be believed.  (so good in fact I left my jacket there one night much to Jo's disgust)

Of the sights we saw the two churches in the main plaza were very impressive with Inca stonework that has lasted through earthquakes that flattened the spanish colonial work, the way the incas managed to fit these giant blocks together is incredible you can barely see joins in some cases.

Cusco at night.
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Also went up to an Incan ruin called Sacsayhuaman (pronounced Sexy Woman).  Jo (god bless her) thought Sexy Woman  was the giant statue on the hill which somewhat sacrilegiously turned out to be a giant statue of Jesus.  This place was really cool and a good precursor to Macchu Picchu with giant stone walls with the aforementioned ultra impressive stonework.

I think we spent about a week prior to the inca trail and two or three days after it in Cusco and that was plenty...so eagerly headed to arequipa for some rest and relaxation.