Breathless in Cusco

Buonas Díaz, we´re now in Cusco, the old Inca capital, struggling to breathe due to the altitude! The flight in this morning was an early one, leaving Lima at 05:50, so we didn´t get much sleep (not that we would´ve anyway with all the HONKING!! see Michelle´s previous post). The flight was fairly bumpy as we flew over the mountains but the landing was pretty hair-raising to say the least. As there´s no real time for descending, and as Cusco is high up (about 3500m) the pilot pretty much clears the last peak and then ¨throws¨ the plane at the landing strip. You don´t even get time to slow down either so the landing speed was pretty much the same as the cruising speed. I thought I was a bad flier but the girl next to Michelle in the window seat looked like she was about to have kittens! We saw a great sunrise though just as we left Lima so I was pleased.

As I said we´re now in Cusco which is the highest place we´ve been to yet (another 1000m above Quito in Ecuador). As soon as we got here we had some Coca tea. It´s made from the same leaves that Cocaine is eventually made from but in tea form it´s legal and is supposed to help with the high altitude. Well I can´t say it did yet, but maybe if we have more it will; either that or we won´t care about the altitude! We just walked up from the Hostal to the main square in Cusco, which incidentally is superb, to get a drink and some food and Michelle nearly passed out. It really does get you. We´ll be taking it easy for a few days to aclimitise and then get a train to Macha Pichu. Macha Pichu is actually lower than Cusco even though in the pictures it looks really high up!

No sign of honking cars yet here, but it is a festival day and cars have been stopped entering the main square.

Well, I´m going to leave it at that, I know it´s a short post, but I´m sure Michelle will be posting too (or if not tmw)

Adios.

p.s. Does anyone remember that Harry Enfield character that always used to know best. He´d start off saying "Only Me" and then whatever anyone had done would constantly say ¨You didn´t wanna do that". The funniest one was in a greasy spoon cafe, and two fellas were talking about how they got into work that morning. One of them said "I didn´t come down the M25 this morning I came in on the A10" or words to that effect. Harry Enfield then starts saying "You didn´t wanna come down the M25 you wanted to come down the A10" , the guy replies "I didn´t", Harry Enfield "You didn´t wanna", the guy "I didn´t come down the M25 I came down the A10", Harry Enfield "You didn´t wanna". Harry Enfield actually starts laughing at one point too, as it´s so ridiculous. This goes on for about 10 mins. Anyway, my point was going to be, there was also a sketch that starts off in a theatre (it´s either Hamlet or Macbeth) the lead actor starts off with the monologue (actually I´m certain it´s Macbeth). "To be or not to be, that is the question". Then in the front row Harry Enfield is there. "Ooohh you don´t want to have that as the question, that´s a terrible question. You want "What´s the capital of Peru" that´s a good question". Lima is the answer" he says. All the time we were in Lima I kept remembering this and chuckling to myself, and repeating it to Michelle (to take her mind of the car honking).

p.p.s. You had to be there.

p.p.p.s. My p.s. is actually longer than this blog I think.