Saturday, August 2

Location: Cuzco, Peru

Today's weather: 21░C, Sunny

Today I felt a lot better, and much more comfortable with the altitude. I was able to walk around the city without feeling tired and out of breath. So I took the opportunity to explore some parts of the city that I hadn't seen yet.

Walking along some of the side streets, I suddenly found myself in the middle of a local marketplace. It wasn't the part of town where tourists usually go – the nearby houses were very poor, there were dirt streets littered with rubbish, and pigs and dogs scavenging for food. The street had a smell similar to rubbish tips back home, though not quite as strong.

There were hundreds of stalls set along the tiny narrow streets, and even along the railway tracks. Most of the stalls were selling fruit – apples, oranges, bananas, grapes, melons; along with vegetables such as carrots, pumpkins, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, and onions. The fruit didn't look as good at in the supermarkets at home, but it looked okay. The butchers' shops were the most interesting – set up in the middle of the streets, I could see people with meat cleavers carving up the meat on small wooden benches. It seemed unhygenic, but this is the way that local butchers have operated for hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of years. There weren't any flies around like I would have expected. Most of the meat being sold was mutton – and next to the stalls you could see a small pile of sheeps' heads (looking peaceful) stacked up neatly against a wall. In one place I saw someone walking home with an entire sheep's carcass draped over his shoulders.

Other stalls in the marketplace were selling various other goods such as childrens clothes, shoes, radios, walkmans, batteries, and small electronics goods. The marketplace was very crowded and it was sometimes difficult making my way through the streets past all of the people.

I returned to my hostel. When I looked in the mirror I realised that the sun in the Andes is much stronger than I had expected – my head and face were very sunburnt and were both now bright pink. Next time I would have to remember to wear my hat!

I had lunch in a small cafe. Lunch was pretty unhealthy – black coffee and pastries, but it meant that I was feeling better and had a normal appetite. After lunch I was surprised to see that Karen was still around. Both she and Janice had left that morning to walk the Inca Trail, but Karen had returned soon afterwards since she was still feeling a little sick. Though Karen had recovered sufficiently to take a little walk around the city (fresh air). We explored more side streets, finding lots of little markets selling alpaca jerseys and wall hangings, paintings, and other local handicrafts. One of the streets that we walked along was Hatunrumiyoc which has some of the best examples of Inca stone work in Cuzco. Some of the side streets were more interesting than others – we discovered that one narrow street had toilets out in the open and a very distinctive smell. There must have been a bar nearby because we met several local in alcohol-induced outpourings of friendship and familiarity.

I spent the rest of the afternoon reading and sitting in local cafes (again). I met up with Karen for dinner and went to the place that I'd been the previous evening. Karen works in forestry in the north of England, so I learnt lots about the forestry (and replanting) currently going on there. Some of the animals long since hunted out of England have recently been reintroduced (from elsewhere in Europe) into replanted forests. There is even a debate about the reintroduction of wolves, which were hunted out of England centuries ago because of the supposed danger they created for people and livestock.