made it to cuzco

we´ll i´m feeling much better (i never did find out what i had) but i have managed to catch emily´s cold. at least we can be sniffly together. it sucks though since tomorrow we are going on a 5 day 4 night trek to see Machu Picchu. i can´t wait. we´ll also be stopping at some hot springs. we are staying in a really hostel here in Cuzco that overlooks the town´s square. it´s gorgeous. we decided to book a flight from Arequipa to Lima for the 26th of oct. travelling by bus takes forever. our last bus ride was 20 hours!! it was a killer and it got so cold at night. we got in this morning, had cold showers (no hot water) and went back to bed for a few more hours. we are running out of time to see all the places we want to go to since travelling between cities in this country takes so freakin long. we also didn´t take the best route to Cuzco but at the time we thought 18 hours was too much and we could break it up stopping at the earlier cities. boy were we mistaken. at least we got to see some cities off the beaten track. since it is so cold here we have stocked up for our hike and bought tuques, scarves, mitts and big alpaca socks.
check this out: gas here is 50 cents a little!