This morning we went about paying for everything we booked yesterday, and what a fun time we have in store. Also, after musing with a beer overlooking Cusco`s wonderful Plaza de Armas we worked out that at the end of the trip the 4 of us (us 2 & H & R) will have spent about 56 days or so in each others company...quite remarkable really.

The following programme is now booked and all very exciting it is too.

Today - well I`ll come to that in a minute.
Tomorrow (25th) - All day tour to the Sacred Valley
Wednesday (26th) - Taxi to Sacsayhuaman, and 8km walk back via loads of other Inka ruins.
Thursday/Friday (27th/28th) - The short (2-day) Inka trail to Machu Picchu look at the link here
- we come in on the 3rd day, and do 6 hrs walking and then MP itself on day 2.
Saturday (29th) - Day in Cusco, or if the weather`s bad in MP on Friday, another day there.
Sunday (30th) to Wednesday (3rd) - 4 day (3 night) trip to the Amazon rainforest to stay at Posada Amazonas. Click here for more info.
Wedneday 3rd Dec we fly to Lima, on the 4th we follow that up with a mammoth day of flights, Lima to Sanitago, and Santiago to Quito (Ecuador) - which we have to do due to the vagaries of our ticket. It menas we get an extra 4,000 odd air miles.
5th and 6th of December will be spent finalising the Galapagos trip, going up to the equator and standing with a foot in each hemisphere (we are such tourists) and going to Otavalo market.
We then have a week left (15th to 21st Dec) when we`re going to have to find something to do in Ecuador, before we head to Madrid, and then Barcelona...

It`s going to be a hell of a few weeks...

As for today we`ve had a really good day exploring Cusco. We started just after lunch with the Santa Catalina monestery, which was founded in 1605. Only 45 years later a huge earthquake rocked the buildings and most of them had to be rebuilt. In doing so a number if Inka treasures were discovered, the colonialists built the church over the walls of the Acllawasi, the palace of the Inka`s handmaidens. There is a wonderful courtyard complete with well, and many religious pieces of art from the last four centuries.

We followed this up with a trip to the fabulous Inka Museum. It is really well laid out, chronicalling the first Inka`s through to modern day descendents who still roam in the countryside. It is home to a collection of everything from pottery though to weaponry, and also a small but to scale model of Machu Picchu, and some really interesting photos of the site as it was when it was discovered in 1911 by `Hiram Bingham, an American anthropologist.

Our final stop for the day was at the Cathedral that sits on the north side of the Plaza de Armas. It is a wonderful building, which has enough silver and gold to enable every Peruvian to live a life of luxury were it equally distributed. It also has a beuatifully carved cloister and chapel.

Cusco is certainly turning into a `favourite place´ although the constant hassle from shoe-shine boys, postcard sellers, and kids with lambs (!) is beginning to get to us.