Cusco, Monday

0939 At Ñucchu for 'breakfast'. Bit tired this morning but not too bad. Shoved mostly damp clothes and other shit in bag randomly. Checked out dead on time, woman came to knock on door just as was eating an apple so I ended up wandering the streets trying to find a bin to throw the core away instead of dumping it in room bin. They let me leave my bag there and said they will be able to call me a taxi. She offered me breakfast but I stupidly declined, because I was a bit shaken and pissed off about being 'caught' in my room instead of making my own way to reception. Oh well, prob just bread and coffee or something. Found bin and got cash in plaza, now come here as it's cheapish and had enough of wandering. Going to go to Soysacwan (sp!) after, guide book says entry is only with boleto turistico but have no idea what that is (I understand the Spanish, but what does it offer and where do I get it) so I will just walk up there and hope I can buy one there.

Metro Bank card is getting badly scratched up somehow despite living in hidden belt. Can't do anything about it and it does still work, they are stopping their free cash withdrawals outside Europe on March 18 IIRC anyway so if it works til then that's something. Can always ask for a replacement once back in UK. As always, incidentally, *because* I have to scatter them so widely for 'safety' I have only a hazy idea where most of my cards are. Frankly I should have a fixed place for each and write it down. In theory it seems best to shuffle them around depending on whether I'm separated from my bag or not, but in reality most of them sit in some unused limbo and there is a slim but non-zero chance I've already lost one without realising it.

On a future trip I need *some* means, be it just a USB stick (or perhaps I will have a new netbook or replace the SSD in that one) of increasing netbook storage. Managing and keeping backups of my photos is such a tedious chore largely because a 2GB SD card full of photos from the camera only just fits in the free space on the netbook SSD. I would always want copies on big SD cards but if I could also keep a whole big SD card's worth on the netbook it would be enormously more convenient - for example, if after a trip like the MP one I had two full 2GB cards to process, I could do them in one go instead of having to copy each to my backup SD cards separately. Perhaps not clearest explanation but I know what I mean.

1025 Bill 23, make it 25. I had a coke zero, I also ordered a papaya juice but it never turned up (obviously my Spanish isn't up to conveying the idea that I might want two different drinks) but they didn't charge for it so wtf. I ate the small bit of tomato and cucumber on plate by way of scraping up something towards my five a day. It's fucking hard when you can't buy fruit; I bought a shrink-wrapped pack of six apples yday, but that was all they had apart from mangoes. Still, do the best I can and sod it.

1442 At Norton Rat's. I might be the only customer. I wasn't going to come here but I have an hour to kill. I was going to go into the Iglesia de la Compañia de Jesús but it doesn't open til 1530.

Went to Sancanwhatsit after 'breakfast'. Met a chap at the sort of entrance who was a guide; it was 70 for ticket and he wanted 35 for 1.5h tour. Was bit dubious as guidebook had warned about some crime round there, but when we got up to site proper he took me to ticket place and people seemed to know him and while I was permanently on very slight alert after a while I figured he was genuine. He later proposed to take me on a 1.5-2h walking tour of some adjacent sites covered by same ticket, charging 25 per site or 75 in total. We did all this in Spanish BTW. Was quite interesting, he showed me some carved snakes and monkeys on some rocks. See GPS track and photos for exactly where we went, I couldn't say. In the end he tried to charge me 110ish saying it was 75 on top of the first site. Now I had definitely said '75 in total?' to him or something to that effect, so I think he was trying it on but maybe I'm wrong. He didn't seem too insistent and I said 'digamos 80' (prob incorrect, but trying to say 'we'll call it 80') and he took that without any apparent ill feeling. I felt a bit awkward but I had been wondering if even 75 was steep (really not sure what would be fair) but since I had agreed to it was planning to make it 80 with tip anyway. So kudos to me for sticking up for myself, though I did feel a bit awkward. Anyway.

Went to KFC for super lardy lunch after then went over to where Museo Quijote supposedly is. Couldn't find it but in roughly same spot was small free museum run by Banco de la Nacion so went round there. Quite interesting, some slightly nightmarish paintings and sculptures by Jesús Venero. Then went and bought some seasickness tablets (made harder by saying 'dolor del mar' instead of 'mareo', meh) just in case for island trip from Pisco. I didn't get any instructions, but they said to take them morning, noon and night starting 15 mins before trip if I understood correctly. I don't intend to take them unless I feel shit, so I hope if I can keep them down for 15 mins that will be OK and they don't not work if you already started to feel sick. Could take them first but I will never know if I do suffer from sea/motion sickness if I don't try without them.

Oh, at start of tour we were making conversation re altitude and the chap pulled some local mint type plant off a wall, he called it muña, and said breathing the smell in helped open the lungs up. I wasn't in great difficulty, but I did sniff it and don't really know if it helped or not, but interesting. He *might* have been called Jose Luis but I wouldn't put much money on me remembering that correctly. He was probably about 50.

I forgot to locate hotel on OSM map last night with all the Galapagos shit, I hope to do it from hotel (possibly in street) when I go back for my bag.

1524 Nearly finished pint, don't think will be able to spin it out much longer and don't think another would be super smart (though hardly massively imprudent either). Will send this now then it might sneak out while I am back at the hotel.