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After spending the night in Cobacabana it was time to hop on the bus. Jungle had been an absolute highlight and yet we were heading towards the next. It did not take long until we were at the Peruvian border, queueing to get another stamp in the passport. Border crossing turned out to be fairly easy, whole bus stayed together because of pickpockets and the short walk we had to take from Bolivian immigration office to the Peruvian one. Well organised and easy, and we had time to exchange the few pesitos we had into nuevo soles. When border formalities were over and done with, we hopped back into bus for an hour or so to switch buses in Puno. Puno is the main city from which to explore Lake Titicaca from the Peruvian side, but because we had already seen the lake, we kept going directly to Cusco.  

What was supposed to be a nine hour drive turned out to be twelve hours. Our plan to arrive during daylight failed, as usual. Not many times buses have been on schedule yet... Happy to arrive, we took our heavy backpacks loaded with jumpers, blankets and warm clothes and took a taxi to the hostel. Quick dinner and straight to bed.

Cusco is a nice city absolutely full of Inca ruins. There is a lot to do if you are interested in that sort of thing. We spent days just exploring he city, impressed by the architechture and skills of the Incas. We also visited a chocolate museum and spent time just sitting at the main plaza.

Like everyone else who comes to Cusco, we wanted to visit Machu Picchu, which has been a dream of mine since I heard of its existence. So we booked a bunch of tickets. First we took a bus to Ollantaytambo, about one and a half hours from Cusco, and stayed there for one night. Ollantaytambo is a cute little village on the way to Machu Picchu. We decided to go there, because we wanted to see as many ruins as we could fit in our budget and schedule without doing a tour. The ruins there were quite impressive, and we had a fun day climbing up and down the stairs and terraces, trying to guess the purpose of the buildings.

From Ollantaytambo we kept going to Aguas Calientes, the gateway town to Machu Picchu. We heard that most tourists take the train from Cusco and arrive to Machu Picchu around 10am. We wanted to avoid the crowds the best we could, so we stayed in Aguas Calientes instead, planning to take the first bus at 5:30 am going up the hill to the ruins. When we woke up and got out of the hostel at 5:20, we noticed that about five hundred other tourists and backpackers had the same idea. The queue from the bus station was a few hundred metres already, and the end of it was right outside our hostel door! Luckily there are lots of buses, and they leave as soon as they are full, so it took us 20 minutes the most to get to the bus and the same time to reach the gates of Machu Picchu, so we got there well before sunrise like we planned.

We entered the gates inside the area, and first thing we did was climb up a hill to enjoy the view of the first rays of morning light hitting the ruins while having breakfast. Food at Machu Picchu is so expensive that we had decided to bring sandwiches and water despite all the forbidden-signs around the place. Good decision, since we planned to have a full day there. So we sat there a while and then headed for a guided tour that was included in the tickets. We spent almost two hours following the tour guide around the lost city until we got sick of the amount of other people and decided to get away from the crowds to have lunch and to climb up an Inca road to the Sun Gate, located up the hill providing another great view of the ruins. A nice walk, although the constant sunshine made it a bit harder than expected... We decided to relax at the much less crowded Sun Gate and wait for the biggest crowds to return back to the train before walking back to the main site. When we got back, we had glowing red sunburns all over, but still we decided to keep exploring the ruins in peace and quiet. So we walked around until the last buses started to leave towards Aguas Calientes, where we spent another night before heading back to Cusco.

Happy to have seen Machu Picchu but a bit bored of the altitude and the cold we still had almost a week in Cusco. We then decided to book another tour. Being sick of carrying full backpacks we decided to send some of our stuff home. After all, we were heading towards the warmer temperatures now.