Peru 2015/16 -Cusco - Jeunes - Saqsaywaman and briefing

One of the beautiful textiles on the walls at the hotel

There are colourful woven blankets, hangings, scarves,bags, backpacks, even shoes in all the tourist shops and the market. The blankets are used to carry things and the local people are buying from the market stalls as well as the tourists. We will be visiting a weaving co-operative as part of our tour and I am really looking forward to it.

Another from the hotel. The women with the long double braids are everywhere. Llama across the top and the Condor were worshiped by the Inca. I guess the cats across the bottom are just cute.

Chris and Jason moved from the Airbnb to the hotel today as it is officially the start of the G Adventures Tour. Once they got settled we prepped their trekking poles (as they had not yet used them) and set out up the hill behind the hotel for a practice hike.

These are the steps we did not climb up, choosing instead to walk up the zig zag road, not that committed to the practice. We did take them coming down.

Cusco is in a valley, surrounded by mountains, some of them snow capped.

Looking down on the main plaza from a terrace on the hill.

We stopped for lunch half way up the hill; cheese served with corn and a cheese and tomato sandwich. Chris wanted to adopt the kitten.

The kitten just wanted the leftover corn. Literally he ate the corn off the cob and drank the corn juice.

We opted not to pay to go into the site as it was 70 soles and we figured we would be seeing enough Inca sites on the tour.

Loved the signage. There was also "Don't Fires" and "Don't Sports".

The don't wash cars may seem a little odd but the previous day we had seen people washing cars using the water running in the ditches in the hills and doing minor maintenance on their cars up there.

We could see the Saqsaywaman site from the road and I did a sketch.

Also the huge white statue of Jesus that looks over the city.

There were 2 llamas grazing at the side of the road.

We felt pretty good about the hike and Chris and Jason were getting used to the poles. The G-Adventures briefing was to be at 6pm so Chris and Jason were off doing some last minute shopping when I got the call that it had been changed to 4:30. David, who had come to get us, escorted us over to the G-Adventures office. We were to be a group of 7:Chris, Jason and I and a family of 4 from Australia, Danny and Fiona attended the briefing but we met Ryan (15) and Casey (14) the next day.
We filled out paperwork (passport, emergency contact, health insurance etc) and the trip was outlined, along with a large group of 16 that were doing a longer trip that included the Amazon. Chris and Jason made it there about half way through. We had the opportunity to ask some questions. Now all I really remember was that we had to make sure to pack no more than 3kg in our duffle bags (given to us that night to take to the hotel and pack), to be patient, its an adventure and don't complain about the toilets we know they are bad. We next arranged for the equipment that we wanted to rent. For me that meant a sleeping bag and a foam mattress (I need my sleep)
Back at the hotel the packing of the duffle bag was a bit intimidating. For 5 days we would only have what was on our backs and what was in them. Here's what went in mine:
4 t-shirts, a pair of cargo pants, 4 pairs of hiking socks, 1 pair of underwear, 1 sports bra, deoderant, toothpaste, toothbrush, moleskin and folding scissors, sandals (to wear in the evening as a relief from the hiking boots), thermal underwear for pyjamas, and a sleeping bag liner. The hotel had a couple of scales to weigh the bags. One said I was .5 over and one said I was right on the money. I chose to believe the second one.
In my daypack I had: 1 pair of thin socks, gloves, woolly hat, sunscreen, bug spray, Ibuprofen (lots!), band aids, rain poncho, splash pants. Attached to the outside was a water bottle, Tilley hat, fleece jacket, rain coat and camera.
It was New Years Eve and I asked for a room without an outside window to try and escape the noise. It worked pretty well though even on the basement level I could hear the fireworks going off. I was so excited/nervous that I slept erratically til it was time to get up at 6am.