Day Five - Chincheros

After a relaxing evening spent by the river enjoying the hotels plentiful supply of coke, Sunday started with a delicious pancake breaks fast and a beautifully scenic morning run by Holly and Jacob, with Jacob putting in his fastest effort since he arrived being chased by two TINY stray dogs!

Others of us weren't feeling so good and a trip to the local doctors was needed. There was no cheery bright waiting room with magazines but a somewhat deserted basic building, but it served its purpose and with Alan, our translator tour guide and a the Spanish speaking doctor we left (after an unsure consultation fee) a prescription hopefully on the road to recovery!


On the other side of the town, the group gained an Inka after Luke's eye was caught by not on an authentic poncho but a complimenting leather hat! Once on our way after an impromptu toilet stop was made in mother natures crops (Peruvian time should never be taken literally) we climbed higher reaching the height of trip to 3800m to Chincherous town. Everyone took in the markets sights (and smells) putting our haggling skills to the test with James scoring himself a great bargain of 2 pairs of wooly alpaca socks for 8 soles (£2.30).

After many a souvenir was purchased and we had battled our way through the rather persistent $2 llama keying sellers. The group and our convincing South American (Luke) made our way up the cobbled steps to the Inca site to a local church perched on the hill. We were greeted by the sounds of a catholic service. We continued to explore the ruins and terraces trying to capture the best snaps of the sights and in Oli's case a picture with a local!

This marked the end of our sacred valley tour. Once we dropped back down to Cusco a free afternoon was enjoyed by all. Some of us ventured out to the local square unaware of the Sunday festivities going. These included games, plenty of delicious smelling street foods and what could only be described as Cuscos equivalent of a kids talent contest (gangnam style has reached Peru...)

Our busy day was finished with a quiz hosted by Oli consisting of a variety of topics, anagrams and even some maths questions based around Peru and our research and the winning team was of course the staff (Alan, Neil and Mark) with Holly, Nikita, Jacob and Ben second and coming away with the
souvenir llama! Well done guys!

Laura, Holly and Nikita