Christmas in Cusco

No Parking

We arrived into Cusco in style, our bus like a flight, reclining seats, hot meals, movies and warm blankets. How can we go back to Greyhound now?

We spent a rather wet and soggy Christmas Eve playing our own private game of The Amazing Race, attempting to get passes for Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu (they only release 400 passes a day to climb Huayna  Picchu) and the train tickets up through the Sacred Valley, before all the offices closed for Christmas. To make it really fun there were the Christmas Markets on. Sprawling markets that filled the central plaza, stopping all traffic and making it tricky to get from one side of town to the other. But we made it, passes and tickets all sorted. 

Then it was shopping time. A budget, S/200 (AU$80) and a time frame, 2 hours. And we were off, bargaining our way around the markets in an attempt to have something to unwrap come Christmas morning. We even found the world's tiniest real Christmas tree that we decorated with llama finger puppets. 

We had been invited to a NGO charity dinner on Christmas Eve, raising money for children in an incredibly poor community 25 minutes outside of Cusco. http://cooperarperu.wordpress.com/ Sadly much of the profits made in Cusco, Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley do not reach the communities and children who live in the surrounding areas. The evening was great fun, everybody there were travelers that either volunteered for the NGO or had heard about it the same as us. Wonderfully generous people.

Christmas Day we made our way through the freezing rain to The Real McCoy pub and spent the afternoon with the owner, Sally, a self proclaimed alcoholic fugitive from the UK. We had a proper lunch with all the trimmings, roast turkey and all. And we had a chance to relax and enjoy ourselves in daggy paper hats.

Town gossips