We slept as well as we could squished into a single bed and wrapped in the dead body sheets these places seem so fond of…a heavy, itchy, hairy thing that just slides off you in one lump each time you move as it is too heavy to bend…and when we got up in the morning we put the heater back on to warm up the room to around freezing temperature.

We didn’t notice the heater almost taking off or glowing like an actual furnace until I went to unplug it and the socket FLEW out of the wall almost on fire! The voltage here in Peru is 220 and the heater is from the US and is considerably lower! Oops!

We took another shower in the tiny shower which was shared with the sink (literally, the sink was IN the shower cubicle) which warmed us considerably and we packed up to head into Cusco for the day.

We had a chat with the woman at the hostal and she said Peggy would be safe parked there while we went into town so we collected her from the locked garage and left her parked at the hostal.

Cusco in the day time was breath taking, the clear blue sky, the chilly air nipping our noses and the music, laughter and dancing enveloped us as we neared the centre. We had found a good spot to park Peggy as it was a quiet street and only one block away from the Plaza de Armas, the main square. We stopped by a coffee shop for a quick breakfast and watched the colourful world go by. Dancers in the quirkiest outfits ever were dancing in parades right past the windows, we had the best seats in the house! Our quick breakfast turned into hours of watching, avoiding the thronging sidestreets where people tried to pass through the crowds that had gathered to watch the dancing and join in with the singing.

VIDEO OF THE DANCING…we are having super technological difficulties right now!

As lunch time approached we fought our way through the crowds to wander the tiny cobbled side streets which climbed up and away from the plaza in grid like spider legs. Women in traditional dress passed us holding tiny lambs in baby slings offering to pose for pictures and one lady even walked a Llama through the busy streets shouting ‘una fotitio?’, ‘a little picture’. The carnival atmosphere was everywhere. Tourists in their ‘maybe’ alpaca jumpers with water bottles strapped to their waists and cameras swinging from their necks bustled in the streets with their backpacks on their fronts, nervously picking their way through the crowds.

We people watched the day away, taking in the grand architecture at every turn. I didn’t blame the tourists with their cameras, the place was beautiful. Everywhere you looked there was a great photo opportunity. An old man having his shoes shined on a bench in the plaza with the stunning Cathedral in the background; a group of young dancers in their outfis giggling over a joke we couldn’t hear or understand; the nuns solemnly walking through the ancient streets or the women sat on the steps weaving the most intircate llama shaped patterns into a blanket using a chicken bone…it was a magical place!
And of course, one we couldn’t capture with our tiny useless digital camera! How we tried and became more and more frustrated. We just kept thinking thank goodness we will have our new camera before Inti Raymi actually starts…this was all just the build up in anticipation of the BIG celebration.

“The Inti Raymi (“Festival of the Sun”) was a religious ceremony of the Inca Empire in honor of the god Inti, one of the most venerated gods in Inca religion. It is still celebrated in indigenous cultures throughout the Andes. Celebrations involve music, colourful costumes (most notable the woven aya huma mask) and the sharing of food.” (Wikipedia)

We spent our days watching the dancing and celebrations, drinking great coffee and eating the best empenadas ever…they were huge and so full of meat, egg and olives that they were almost bursting at the seams!…and of course catching up on the blogging and contacting people about press, weddings and interviews!
We met with Patricia Cerf, a wedding planner in Cusco who is a friend of Luis and we sat and got excited about the wedding preperations. Patti showed us pictures of the hotel where we would be having the wedding and told me I was booked in for hair and make up on the big day!

We had been staying in the van since the first night, we had found quite a good little spot to stay outside of the church overlooking the city lights at night and parking outside our original hostal during the day (when we weren’t in the mechanics having her fuel tank cleaned). The hostal let us use their showers for a dollar each every day and to fill our water containers whenever we needed to so we got them a big box of chocolates to say thank you.

Before we knew it Inti Raymi was upon us…alas, our camera was not! We shrugged it off and guessed it would arrive the next day or soon after. A shame to miss Inti Raymi but not the end of the world BUT hence the terrible images and lack thereof! Sorry :-/

The already packed streets were overflowing with dancers, locals and travellers; cameras were pointed randomly into the air to try to get a snap of the action and everywhere vendors flogged their wares, alpaca jumpers, rum selotaped to bottles of cola, multicoloured flags to pin to you without you noticing so they could demand money from you…even jars full of pickled multicoloured snakes! It was a great atmosphere and absoultely crazy everywhere!

We had looked into getting seats for the celebration at Sacsayhuaman, one of the most fantastic ruins around, apparently the head of the puma (it is said that Cusco is the shape of a puma) with walls in the shape if its jagged teeth, however they were over $100 each and it was just too much. Instead we decided to try to see it from around the perameter. We had been for a drive around sacsayhuaman before the celebration and much of it could be seen from the road! We hatched a plan to drive up the ridiculously steep 7km long road by saying we were going to the campsite (that we could never find) and that way we wouldn’t have to leave Peggy behind! We told the police organising the river of people flowing slowly up the hill towards the party where we were going and we were ushered through. It was slow going waiting for the people to part to let us through, there wasn’t alot of room and we had several hitchers on the bumpers and skirts…definitely easier than walking! When we were half way a police escort appeared on a motor bike, he led us so far and then told us we had to find our way out ourselves and that he could take us no further. The hills surrounding the ruins were covered with thousands of people huddled in together waiting to see the show from above and from where it was free! We tried to park in a spot where we would be able to see almost everything but were again moved on by the police. We drove all the way around the loop and enjoyed seeing the people enjoying themselves more than I think we would have enjoyed the show! We drove back into the plaza where there was still dancing and singing going on and enjoyed that instead! We had had enough of crowds for one day!