Puno to Cusco

We got up early and made our way to the bus station in Puno to catch our eight hour bus ride to Cusco. There were a few other travel groups on the bus, including a GAP group with, what V called, the "hot guide". She was hoping that he was going to be sitting next to her, so she was checking her make-up, adding more perfume, and spraying some on his seat ... she wasn't impressed when her seat-mate turned out to be a not-so-good looking passenger from his group, and not him! The ride was long and not very exciting - the scenery was mostly scrub brush. The movie died after only 15 minutes, so V gave the driver her "Chick Flicks" CD to listen to (over and over again!). Our only stop was at the half way point, where everyone rushed to use the bathrooms, take a few pictures, look at the always present handicrafts, then hope back onto the bus. We got to Cusco around 4 pm, and went to Bembos for a very late lunch. Bembos is the Peruvian version of McDonalds, but the food is better, cheaper, looks like the picture, and is made fresh when ordered. We sat upstairs where we had a great view of the main plaza. Our next stop was to go to the tourism office to pick up a pass that gave us admission to a lot of the historic sites in the Sacred Valley. V also gave us a quick tour around town, showing us things like the Inca stone with 12 edges in one of the alleys - this stone appears in almost all the brochures.

Before heading off to supper, we had a meeting with our guide for the Inca trail. Since only C, D, and I are doing the trek (K isn't trekking, and L and H are doing Lares), we are joining 6 people from another GAP trip - 3 Norwegian ladies, a British couple, and a girl from Canada (R). We were given our packing list, told how far and high we would be hiking each day, and a bit about what to expect. I think we were all a bit nervous about what we had gotten ourselves into!