Cusco, Cuzco, Qusqu - there is no offical spelling

The road from Puno to Cuzco is not one of the most exciting of rides, certainly for the first half. It is flat plains with the small farming enterprises. You do eventually come to a valley and this goes on for several hundred kilometres. It almost has an Alpine feel to it and the smell from the Eucalyptus trees is very refreshing.

The road follows this train line all the way to Cuzco. The train then continues on to Machu Picchu. I believe there are 4 luxury trains per week that use it to get punters along the tourist sights.

It is easy to forget that you are still at nearly 4,000 meters.

The outskirts of Cusco , as with other towns is not what dreams are made of but once you get to the old part of town all the hype begins to make sense. I had booked an hotel on line, in the old part of town and had drawn a rough map to be able to find it (no Sat Nav you see). I was somewhat surprised when i saw the road I had to go up!

It starts steep and get steeper! remember that photographs "flatten" slopes. I was sceptical that this was the right road but as I was already on it there wasn't much option other than to continue (I walked back and took this picture later). I gunned it up the hill scattering hikers as I went.I got to a small plateau (about the length of a car) and stopped. The way forwards didn't look promising. There was a European Student selling bracelets (yes there is a lot of them in south America). He told me that the Hotel was indeed further up the hill but as it turns in to steps you can't get there on your bike! I wasn't best pleased and thought my only option is to find an alternative.

I did a U turn very gingerly and looked back down the black run. I didn't fancy it much. There was a narrow road to the right which didn't look so bad so I went down that.

It was going quite well until someone stopped me and said it was not for traffic and there were police at the bottom! Again, the slope was so narrow and steep I couldn't do a U turn, I was pretty hacked off so thought "Sod it".

I came out on the main Plaza De Armas through the arch behind the police car! This is another picture that I took after the event AND as luck would have it the police weren't parked there when I came down!

I then had to ride across the square to get back on the road. I deserved the few funny looks I got!
Having done a lap of honour round the square trying to work out where to go, I was flagged down by a tour tout who had worked out my predicament with incredible speed and accuracy. He pointed to to an Hotel (which turned out to be a Hostel) round the corner & yes they had on site parking for my bike.
I was hot and bothered by now so was prepared to look at anything.

I was ushered through the main front glass doors on my bike (which is becoming a habit) and parked in the courtyard.one block from the centre of town. This will do nicely! Well, apart from no heating and no hot water.

There must have been an incredible amount of wealth here in the days of the Spanish as the size and quality of the buildings, not to say the number of Churches are impressive. Our old friend Pizzaro was here and decided to destroy most of the Inca buildings, although they did often use the foundations on which to build their catholic churches. God must be an Inca as when they have had earthquakes the Churches fell down but the Inca walls remained unharmed, brings a smile to my face to think of it.

Given the size of the blocks it shouldn't come as a surprise (these are 2m thick). The blond lady gives a perspective & makes a photograph of stonewalls slightly more interesting. There are several patterns worked in to the walls; Puma's (always popular with the Inca's and Serpents.This one below shows the front half of the Puma.. It is there but not easy to work out from the photo

One last picture of walls. This is a special 12 cornered stone. It is thought to symbolise the 12 regions, perhaps it was just the mason having a laugh.

These were being built at not a dissimilar time to those in Easter Island and the skill of cutting straight lines seems about the same.

The town centre itself is very well groomed and with 2 million good reasons - tourists. All the trappings are here, a McDonalds, just for smelly an Oirish bar (there are two that I have seen) and the "famous" Norton Rat Bar - full of pictures of Norton & Vincent Motorcycles. I believe it is a principle of theirs to never serve Pisco Sours!

I have booked myself a trip to Machu Picchu which requires getting up at 4 am, a train journey and another bus up to the site - I am not doing the 4 day hike thank you very much!

One last thing, as I am 400 meters lower than I have been used to recently, I celebrated with a beer at Norton Rats. Cheers