Cuzco

Today we drove from Ollantaytambo to Cuzco - we hadn't booked any where to stay but for once we aren't carrying the enormous surf boards so we were able to just turn up and find a place to stay. In the end we found a little hotel with a nice room with three beds and a bathroom with a bath (but only luke warm water!) It also has a little balcony which overlooks a lot of rooftops, not quite the amazing view that we have been treated to for the last few days but it's clean and cheap and in a nice area of Cuzco.

After we arrived we called our families and spent a couple of hours catching up then we went for a walk around Cuzco to see what the town is like. To be honest I am really pleased that we stayed the extra nights in Ollante as Cuzco is very very touristy, when you walk through the street people jump on you and try and drag you into their restaurant - it's also really busy. It is pretty but nothing like we have been used to with the huge mountains - there is a main plaza and this has the requisite Spanish church, but to be honest we have seen a few of these now - Cuzco reminds us a bit of Guatemala. There was a lot of dancing in the plaza by women in traditional dress but we weren't sure what they were celebrating.

The main thing we will remember Cuzco for is the worst meal so far... we sat in a restaurant with a balcony overlooking the main plaza which was pretty beautiful. We ordered our food, Will had an oriental chicken dish, I had a steak and Sam had alpaca (of course)! Will's was gross, just a mountain of plastic noodles and my steak was really tough and dry, Sam loved his alpaca. For those of you who haven't tasted alpaca I think it's disgusting, it's really strong and tastes quite bitter to me. After the disappointing meal we went to McDonalds for desert and Sam and Will ordered an ice cream, the ice cream was off and tasted horrible so we asked for our money back.

All in all we are underwhelmed by Cuzco, it just feels like a huge tourist trap and nothing like the real Peru which we have just experienced. I have attached another picture from Machu Picchu as we have loads. Tomorrow we fly back to Lima, hopefully all our stuff will still be there and then we will start to plan the road to Santiago. Definately including Nazca and Arequipa with Colca Canyon to see the condors.