Navel of the world

That's Cusco/Cuzco, by the way, or as it's known in Quechua, Qosq'o (I think I'll refer to it as that from now on cos it's great fun to type!). Anyway it was very nice to have FINALLY acclimatised to the altitude, and been able to enjoy Qosq'o and the Sacred Valley around it without constantly feeling like a lie down. Of course, it's proved impossible to entirely avoid gringos around here, though Lord knows we tried (I told Becka there was about as much chance of getting me into one of the local Irish pubs as going on the World's Most Dangerous Road in Bolivia - that one hasn't been entirely settled yet, by the way). Perhaps only here would you hear over-excited Americans raving about how this is the "fuckin' cultural capital of the Americas, man!" (if you discount the McDonalds and the places where you can get your curry and your Sunday fry-up).

That said, it's a very quiet time to be here, as the massive rains back in January caused such damage that a lot of the area's been closed off since then (Machu Picchu included, of course) and tourists cancelled their trips in droves - good for us, pretty bad for Qosq'o, though. I had expected greater numbers of child beggars, and while there was still a depressing amount, it was mainly street sellers attempting to flog paintings/massages/pictures with llamas, all of whom seemed to have a pretty strong grasp of English (or the phrase ":maybe later?" anyway).

So as far as missing out on Machu Picchu (or "MaKKHHHHchu PiKKHHchu" as our guide back in Chavin de Huantar would have it - either that's the proper pronunciation or he was trying to psych me out), I was pretty much OK with it. Especially having seen Chan Chan, Huaca de la Luna etc, which predate the Incas by hundreds, even thousands, of years! Anyway, it's been tremendous to witness the Inca capital and its amazing walls up close - the more I hear about the Incas, the more incredible they sound. We particularly enjoyed visiting Ollantaytambo yesterday - not just because it remains the hardest place name on our whole trip to pronounce, but because it was where the Incas whupped the Spaniards' asses back in the 16th Century (this ultimately was a false dawn though, and the Spanish were soon back in force). The Incas only had three rules, it seems - "thou shalt not lie", "thou shalt not steal" and "thou shalt not be a lazy bastard", or something, which I guess means they were free to kill and/or shag each other to their hearts' content!

We found out a lot of this today, when we visited Pisac and trekked uphill for what felt like half a day. After a couple of tense moments early on (perhaps when we realised quite how much effort would be entailed) we got into the spirit of it, helped along by the amateur guide, name of Amaru, who we encountered halfway up. We missed out on Sacsahuayman as it would have entailed shelling out even more than we already had to visit it, but at least we found out that the name means "satisfied falcon", which was fantastic news. Anyway, we were both pretty much "ruined" by this point, if you get my meaning. (This is us near the top of the Pisac site, by the way):

Anyway, after a farewell pisco sour, we're leaving Peru tomorrow (sadly), heading for Lake Titicaca and the town of Copacabana - not to be confused with its Brazilian namesake. This is the ORIGINAL Copacabana, apparently! They said it couldn't be done, and it was impossible to get there from Qosq'o on the same day, something to do with Bolivian border guards being a bunch of lazy-asses who only work till 7pm (what kind of border is that?? The Peruvian side is open all day!), but we're damned if we're gonna be stuck in Puno for the night, so we're gonna get there by hook or by crook. Well, that's the intention, anyway... Guess you'll find out next time!