After an surprise overnight stay in Lima due to our cancelled flight, we were pleased to get up in the air and on our way to Cusco, the Inca capital! After a couple of bad nights sleep (Limas feria was on!) I could have fallen fast asleep for the hours flight, however the views over the Andes mountains on the early morning flight were so stunning I spent the whole flight looking out the window!

After landing we quickly grabbed a local cab to our new Airbnb in the pretty San Blas area of Cusco.

Now Cusco is a good 11,500ft above sea level, and you soon realise that! We decided the best thing to do, and seeing as it was still early in the morning, was to climb straight into our huge beds and sleep for a few hours to acclimatise.

When we woke around lunchtime Den popped to the nearby bakers and little shop for a few supplies for lunch, and I got a few loads of our washing in the washing machine! (We’ve not had one since San Diego!)

After lunch we thought we’d take a gentle stroll down to the historic centre, and book our major expense of our whole trip….the trip to Machu Picchu! Now by buying all the tickets separately (rail from Peru rail, admission to ruins from government building and taxi direct) we got the price down massively from £950 (U.K. Quote) to £560! Feeling pretty chuffed with ourselves! So bought some little llamas to celebrate! 😂

In the afternoon we were all feeling the effects of the high altitude, headaches, shortness of breath, so had a chilled out evening, warm baths for the girls and fresh pyjamas. Coco tea for Den and I followed by an early night.

I did wake a couple of times in the night, a little short of breath and at one point heart thumping in my chest (slightly alarming!!!) but today we have all woken feeling brighter and more ready to go.

So first things first some home schooling, we decided to ditch the maths in favour of learning about the Incas and Machu Picchu. The girls seemed to love it and are now really looking forward to seeing the lost city!

We then took a trip to the local farmers supermarket….ha ha ha….well it’s not quite what we were use too! An open air market style with lots of little stalls selling their goods, the girls faces as they saw the chickens being chopped up on the wooden counter was a picture! We practiced our Spanish and came home with quite a haul of yummy bits!

After a yummy lunch we decided to head to the Inka museum a short walk away to cement this mornings learning. We had a guide take us round and explain everything to us, and the real life mummy’s were an eye opener!

We then slowly meandered home. The streets of Cusco are made for wandering around, narrow cobbled streets, red tiled roofs and amazing mountain views. You stumble across inca walls amazingly preserved, little stalls selling beautiful colourful Peruvian goods are slong all the streets and on almost every corner there’s an inca woman in traditional dress holding a baby llama covered in pom-poms trying to get you to pay for a photo! They are pretty cute, the girls and I are pretty smitten, we even did llama artwork when we got home!

A good couple of days!