Losing Marbles

After a hot shower this morning, we had a quick breakfast, checked out of our hotel, then headed to the bus station to get a ride north to Cusco. It was just after 10:00, and we managed to find a bus with a toilet leaving around noon. While waiting, some local kids (supposed to be working shining shoes) got Nigel to play some sort of marble game with them, then some sort of caps game. Our bus finally turned up just after 12, but we had to wait until the staff and local women passengers got on top of the bus and loaded on about 50 live chickens and probably over 2,000 eggs.

The ride north to Cusco took about 7 hours. Nige began to develop a migraine after only about an hour, so the rest of the ride was pretty miserable. By the time we reached Cusco though, the drugs he took and sleep he managed to get had helped and he was feeling a bit better. Although still high at over 3300m, we were glad to descend the 500m from Puno. We took a taxi to the Plaza de Armas and Nige had a seat on the steps of the cathedral while I wandered around the tiny alleys and streets looking for a hotel with both availability and affordable prices. We knew this would be a problem because it is the highest tourist season plus a national holiday coming up. After not finding much about 10 hotels later, I found Nigel, we donned our packs and set off in a different direction. We tried probably 10 more hotels before finding a cute place not too far from the plaza, and not up a huge steep stairway alley--a huge bonus! Plus it was cheaper than we've been paying, so we felt lucky.

We dropped our gear, then went to find some food. It was already pretty clear Cusco is more expensive and touristy than anywhere else in Peru, so we were on a mission to find somewhere cheap. We found Coco Loco. It was packed with locals, always a good sign, and we had good food too. Dodging the countless touts and people trying to get us into their dodgy nightclubs, we made our way back to our hotel (frozen popsicles by this stage) and went to bed.