7th November

Breakfast was comedy. 7 soles in the hotel equates to very dry toast, juice and coffee that never changes colour irrespective of the amount of milk added.I joinedBernadette who had bought Irish tea bags with her. The others went back to Jack's cafe. My duffelbag nowweighs less than the rucksack I will be carrying for the next 5 days. Most of the contents consists of high cholesterol snacks and medicine.

Today we are off to the sacred valley of the Incas. This isn't part of the trek but sets the scene for the history of the region. First stop was Saqsaywaman (yes, pronounced "sexy woman"), ancient ruins overlooking Cusco. Ruben is very knowledgeable on the subject and the architecture of the Incas is fascinating like that of the Egyptians. They even built at 80 degree angles (rather than 90) to counteract the earthquakes of Peru. We took lots of photos of the ancient ruins, went through tunnels and slide down rock slides.

A short trip up the road took us to a llama and alpaca farm. The alpacas are v friendly and I suppose if I had to I would say they were cute their fur being like cotton wool. Pity I tried them with chips last night. Llamas are big horrible creatures that spit at you at any opportunity. Just before lunch we went on a short trek to the ancient citadel of Pisac. Most of the walk was uphill which is good practice for the Inca Trail. A few sheer drops off the path certainly focussed the mind. We had lunch in the new town of Pisac. Not great. My food was cold.We went around the market for an hour or so - still couldn't find a peruvian equivalentof my pulsera. Helped Brigeene to haggle to get a cheap price for a painting. The "she has a sick brother" seemsto work quite well.

The bus ride from Pisac was interesting. It turns out that Bernadette certainly doesn't have the luck of the Irish - she left her duffel bag in Cusco and her camera in Pisac. We drove back but sadly no hope of finding it. Our final stop for the day was Ollantaytambo. A real astronomical gem of a place with everything aligned in the village to the major constellations and gates carved into mountains thatonly let light through on the summer and winter solstices. Pretty impressive. Ruben did a great job of explaining the history and we had a brief chat in Spanish about the class of women in Buenos Aires.

Tonight we are staying in a "guest house". 2 showers, 16 people, pretty basic. Willy and I playedagame of "Sapo" which is the peruvian equivalent of darts.You have to throw big brass coins onto a board with holes in it. The coins crop through the holes (hopefully) and each hole is associated with a number. The highest score wins. There is also a big brass toad (un sapo in Spanish) in the middle that if you manage to throw a coin into its mouth you get maximum points.

We got last minute provisions for the trail tomorrow (chocolate mainly). The Canadians said nothing through dinner. Ted didn't even take his hat off. We all discussedtipping for theporters and cook for the trail. I wonder if they'll ask me to do a speech again? We all had an early night, we have to get up at 4 AM to get to the start of the trail. This is 3 hours earlier than normal because it is rumoured that the Peruvian unions are striking tomorrow and blockades are predicted. Personally I can't see them get their lazy arses out of bed.