Ushuaia to Cusco – 29/11/10 and 30/11/10

Today we left Ushuaia for our next destination Cusco.

The flight from Ushuaia to Buenos Aires was quite funny. There were a large group of older ladies and gentleman on the flight and they were really excited about flying. The kept laughing out loud and joking around with the cabin crew. They did lots of clapping too. When the flight took off, landed, came to a
hault or even when the announcement was made that we were about to land, there was a large round of applause.

The airline was Aerolineas Argentinas. They only let one of our bags on as hand luggage! Boooo, hiss! 4-3 to them!

We had a three hour wait in Buenos Aires before we caught our flight on TACA ailines to Lima, capital of Peru. And TACA are very generous with their hand luggage allowance and allowed our bags on board…4-4!

After a quick stay overnight in Lima at a hotel just outside the airport, we boarded the short morning flight to Cusco. The one hour flight went very quick and once again TACA allowed us to take our luggage on board…5-4 to us!

The approach to Cusco airport was amazing with the plane flying extremely close to some hills. I imagined Cusco to be quite small but it was much bigger than I thought.

Today (Tuesday), has been our first day in Cusco. We have tried to do as little as possible as we adjust to the high altitude of this city. Even walking up a flight of steps can be harder than usual. I did think it was going to be worse than this from some of the horror stories you hear but so far its been fine, with only a very mild headache that we’ve both experienced. Drinking the matte de coca definitely helps. It’s a hot drink like tea but instead of tea bags you just stuff a load of coca leaves into the cup and fill it with hot water.

The Cusco rooftops, we haven’t had a chance to fully explore this town yet but it looks very cool!

‘Long live Peru’ written on one of the hillsides.

I’m sure by Sunday we will have acclimatised suffuciently to do the Inca Trail.
In the next few days we plan to visit more of the city and tour the Sacred Valley. Maybe we’ll try some of the local delicasies such as guinea pig or alcapa!