It was a short flight from our jungle experience to Cusco and we arrived around 11am.

Cusco sits at an altitude of 3400m so the air is thinner and we both noticed it almost immediately! It affects different people in different ways, for me it was like a head cold pressure headache and very sore eyes , a few hours in I was seeing blue spots! For David headache , shortness of breath, lethargy and headaches. Thankfully we had medication and started on it immediately. But I’m not sure it made a huge difference!

Checked in, and it was off on a short orientation tour and some lunch. This is where being part of Intrepid is amazing, no thinking just follow the instructions, you arrive at the hotel and your check in details have been pre populated, it’s been 4 days now, so leave your laundry and it will be back to you tonight. Honestly that stuff saves hours and a lot of stress.

It’s a very buzzy place Cusco, lots of tourists and locals and the Christmas buzz is definitely here. But the altitude was getting to us , so we left the group and got a taxi back to the hotel to rest( again having the guide arrange this, sort payment in minutes is priceless) .

Dinner and a night tour was great. I was distracted with some work stuff so headed back to the hotel and tried ( unsuccessfully) to sleep. Another altitude sickness symptom!

Next day we headed out to an Indigenous women’s cooperative. I’m always a bit cautious about these things , locals becoming the attractions in their local costumes. But those reservations quickly disappeared… we had driven 90 minutes to their home , and it was clear we were being hosted but some pretty incredible women. They welcomed us with song and a flower necklace . They each introduced themselves, then got each one of us to stand and do the same. I loved this as I was really wanting to mihi to them too…

For the next few hours they showed us elements of their daily lives, how they clipped, cleaned, dyed, spun and then wove their fibres. An incredibly labour intensive process, it was fascinating…all natural dyes, all hand spun and a shawl would take 4 months to complete working 4 hours a day.

Using cochineal Beatles that live on cactus , crushing them and thrn adding other minerals and ingredients they could change the colours.

These women set this up 8 years ago and Intrepid have been bringing their tours here ever since , I got the impression it was a very symbiotic relationship. and a really lovely one at that.

Of course we could then buy their products. Expecting the whole presentation to be a lead in to a heavy sales pitch , it was not that at all, hats and gloves for $nz15 and a beautiful table runner depicting the land and skies beautifully hand woven for probably 2 weeks , was being sold for about $75us. In thrilled we have it.

Really was the experience of a lifetime and if you get the chance you must go.

By now we were at an altitude of 3800m and the altitude was really kicking in. We drove down to sacred valley about an hour away stopping to take a few pics

We then stopped at another cafe for a brownie and got chocolate. Operated for local single women it was another great partnership with Intrepid.

While most of our group will now leave us to hike the Inca Trail for the next few days ..a separate programme for the non walkers has been arranged. I’ve been told the details, but can I remember? Nope. The beauty of the tour. If it’s more days like this I’ll be thrilled.