Day 14

Monday 15^th November 2010

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz !!!

Wow altitude makes you sleep sleep sleep. We nodded of again last night at 10 and woke at 6 this morning. That was after having a 6 hour “nap” in the afternoon. We are beginning to match my brother in the sleeping stakes!

We went out about half seven and grabbed some brekkie. I don’t know why I always do this but it doesn’t matter where I am in the world, if I see Full English on a menu I expect Full English. Not fried potatoes, almost no bacon and some massive beans with blended tomatoes; I don’t know why I do it to myself. Suz had banana pancakes in a caramel type sauce, it was huge and more like dessert than breakfast, she ate approximately 3/16ths.

It was a beautiful sunny day so we had a mooch around the town square Plaza de Armas, looking for a rafting trip for tomorrow. We found one for about 38 quid each that included rafting, a few 120 metre zip lines over the river and a shower and a steam room when your done, so that’s tomorrow sorted.

The whole town is largely constructed of inca walls which comprise huge blocks of stone. Very impressive when you think that they didn’t have any of today’s technology to construct them.

The local town’s folk are so proud of their heritage they shout at you if you touch them! Apparently the acid in your hand is dissolving the stone (seems a little over the top when last night I saw 5 kids playing football against it and one little girl doing a wee on it). There is a special stone with 12 sides in one wall said to depict the 12 inca kings.

We also saw the cathedral and various other important buildings. They are a mixture of Inca walls with arches etc added by the Spanish when Fransisco Pizarro found his way over from Lima in the 1500s and overthrew the Incas, thus ending their empire.

We headed up to the market and had a bustle around, they sell the most horrendous jumpers you have ever seen, they made me want to self harm.

So we bought one…………………. each!

                                 

I‘ve also purchased a leather hat, not too dissimilar in style to Sir Indiana Jones’ for our adventures, an adventuring hat if you will. It’s cooler than Snoop Dogg in an ice bath “ma nizzle!”

After all that we headed to a bar, well it was 11:20. We sat on what they call a balcony overlooking the plaza, which was basically 12 inches squared to “enjoy” your drink. I folded myself into my stool and decided I wasn’t much enjoying my drink so asked Suz if she fancied a game of darts.

She won

After which we came back to the apartment for yet another nap, 14:00 – 17:30 which I think means we’re getting acclimatised. We did manage to miss a huge thunder storm though – result!

We’re gonna pop round to the Irish Bar again tonight and try a beer or two which I predict means we’ll be home in bed for 9

Good times!!