Sunday, August 3

Location: Cuzco, Peru

Today's weather: 20░C, Sunny

Slept in till about 9am. There were lots of sounds from outside – including a band and fireworks. In Plaza de Armas there was a big festival. There were dignitaries standing on a platform in front of one of the churches. There was a contingent from the Army drilling with their rifles, and then standing at attention while the Peruvian flag was raised and the national anthem played. The next flag was the Cuzco flag – it is very colourful, with stripes of many colours, and represents the old Inca Empire, Tahuantinsuyu (or the "Four Quarters").

I walked around the town (again), exploring more streets and taking more photographs, before eventually returning to the parade and getting photographs of people in exotic costumes.

At 1pm I met Karen for lunch. Afterwards, we wandered down to the train station to buy tickets for Machu Picchu (Karen was going on Tuesday, and I would be going on Wednesday). Strangely, there was hardly anyone at the train station. It was 1:30pm, and usually there would be lots of people queuing in anticipation of the office opening at 3pm (if you're in Peru, get used to queuing). Karen was still feeling sick, so I offered to buy both tickets while she went back to the hostel to rest. I waited at the train station (also exploring a nearby market) until 3:30pm, but the ticket office didn't open. A security officer later told me that the office would be closed for the rest of the day and wouldn't reopen until 5am the next day. He suggested that it would be best to be there early if I wanted a ticket. Somewhat disappointed, I returned to the hostel. Karen was interested in spending the next day horseriding, so we visited various tour agencies around Plaza de Armas trying to find the best deal. We finally settled on one which was scheduled to begin at 8:30am the next morning, and would last most of the day. We made sure that the tour included an English-speaking guide since neither Karen or I spoke Spanish terribly well.

Karen returned back to the hostel to rest some more. Meanwhile, I read some more and continued with my writing.

I had dinner in a small cafe – ordering an unhealthy but delicious combination of coffee and pancakes. But the pancakes had some fruit with them, so I guess they weren't all that unhealthy after all.