Cusco, Wednesday

1210 Woke by self about 0950, snoozed on alarms, stayed awake in bed from about 11 til bit before 12. Didn't sleep too badly. Topping up phone which didn't leave on charge overnight as had it to read myself to sleep on.

Chap just came round for housekeeping, asked him to give me 10-15 mins. Bit hungry but will go to try to post off some souvenirs and a couple of photo backup microSD cards before eating.

1255 At small restaurant (Los Traviesos?) on Avenida del Sol, for lomo saltado. Posted stuff off, v quiet in post office, no queue, smidge pricey at PEN31 (mostly I would guess due to papery souvenirs, not the memory cards) but prob best get rid of them safely instead of lugging them around and I don't think I'm accumulating insane amounts of paper.

1306 See from paper on next table Ica and middle Peru hit by 5.6 earthquake. I was toying with going to Ica before Lima. Have to look into that later.

1321 Portion not huge but not bad and fairly cheap. I hope the peppers and fried onions will go some way towards my Five A Day (R) (TM) (FU) as I saw no sign of any fruit or vegetable selling shops yesterday despite looking.

1327 OK, let's pop off to Quorikancha which by luck is just round corner. Bill 14, making it 16.

1336 OK, here, strangely doddering crowds round entrance. Paid 15 for combo tkt which also includes Santa Catalina whatever that is. Miserable cunts don't allow taking photos even without flash.

1354 Descriptive text is rather lacking and I find myself perpetually being held up by tour groups. I should just listen without paying. No one offered me a tour, it's OK, the guide book says a bit and I'm not gagging to know too much but still.

1435 Sneaking odd photo here and there, not totally clear what is prohibited and what isn't. May just be the paintings. Art gallery upstairs contains fascinating and slightly disturbing sculpture El Guía by Xavier Cano, snapped that.

1540 Just been round Santa Catalina monastery, quite atmospheric and the notion of people shutting themselves away is a powerful one to my imagination.

I see from guidebook you can do paragliding at some action centre nearby, saw a tour agency advertising this (presumably same place) yday. While looking stumbled across dismissive comments on guided tours of MP (expensive and you only get a few hours at site, better to DIY). Some places, including the one I booked with, advertise 2d/1n MP for USD100 all inclusive outside, but when I enquired inside the one I booked at it was more than double that (as at all three I spoke to) so I assume noone really does it for 100. I suspect my tour will be as good as DIY, not sure about price, given I am getting to see sacred valley (guide says you can do this indepedently with a licenced taxi driver, esp if you have a group) and because it's 2d/1n we will be going to MP about dawn IIRC and presmably get most of the second day there before returning to Cusco. Given the logistics of coordinating train tickets and hotels in notorious exploitative Aguas Calientes and getting to and from the train station (at Owhatsit; you do indeed have to get train from there, or you can choose to go from nearer to Cusco) I think if I have paid extra (and I haven't tried to tot up the individual items) for the tour it's well worth it for the reduced stress. Besides, I don't think I'm trying to win any bragging rights about being a completely DIY tourist and in any case I am pretty independent on the whole anyway; it just seems smart to take advantage of prepackaged tours when appropriate.

1555 OK, just popped into tour agency on plaza re bus. Cruz del Sur do a bus to Ica/Lima every day at 2pm and 6pm. It's 15h to Ica, 22h to Lima. Ica costs about PEN190, it's 5 more to book at this agency but as she said by time you take taxi to go book at terminal it's not cheaper. (OK, I could walk, but rather not). Not booked yet as may stick on extra day or two (eg for paragliding), she said can book day in advance. I mentioned earthquake in Ica and she hadn't heard of it, she said if it wasn't that big it wouldn't get reported everywhere and she said the buses were running OK. Anyway, was meaning to find out about buses onwards and now have something to mull over. Apparently is wifi on bus, I think there was on the one I came here on but no one ever gave me password and didn't ask. That journey is kind of OK and although I might double check price of flights it strongly inclines me to go to Ica by bus. If I don't want to go to Ica, unless is somewhere else I could stop over (I don't want to go to Nazca this time round) Lima is probably next stop and that might be worth flying. But unless Ica is foul or completely in turmoil after earthquake I think going there for a couple of nights at least can't be a bad thing.

1610 OK, went in one tour agency but only bureau de change manned, went into another next door and had a chat. It's USD100 including transport, they need two people and neither Monday nor tomorrow do they have anyone else wanting to do it. Place where fly was somewhere beginning with U near a town beginning with C. I left my e-mail address and we will see if they get back to me. I would guess anyone offering paragliding is going to be reselling the same underlying offering (and it's not that commonly advertised, unlike various treks) so probably not worth getting hung up chasing round various different firms.

1806 Went round cathedral - interesting but ridiculously expensive at PEN25 and no photos allowed either - then back to hotel to Skype parents and top up phone. Since can't find any fruit/veg having second meal, come to Cafe Balcon del Sol, sat at table 3 just as was yday morning, having melon juice by way of clocking up an extra portion of fruit and pollo a la plancha. Then will go have couple of beers, not intending to make a night of it, but as will want to be preparing/going to bed early tomorrow night will go out tonight, also seeking out where to go on Saturday night which do intend to be more of a large on (depending how it goes). Not remotely seeking company tonight, will sit at bar if no tables free but not intending to make any great effort to socialise.

No idea why they are so fricking tight on photos here. I am not even putting it down to religious reasons, I have been in plenty of Catholic religious premises in Latin America without non-flash photography being banned.

1837 They forgot to put the juice on my bill, I am just so honest I pointed it out. 14 for food, 4.50 juice, call it 20. Food OK, ate the mercifully undressed cucumber and tomato slices to try to notch up moe fruit/veg consumption.

1845 At Norton Rat's pub/bar on plaza (as with CK yday in guide book). Getting a pint of their house special Norton's Pale Ale draught (10PEN) at 5.5%. Cheapest option would have been 620ml some domestic beer at 10PEN. Corona massively pricey at iirc 22 for a 330ml bottle, not that I wanted any but you might expect it to be cheaper here, maybe not, obviously it's marketed as premium.

NPA is not bad, slightly fizzy but only slightly, not served too cool, OK really.

2001 Third pint, sod it. Bit cavernous in here and though by no means empty not exactly heaving. Not too bad an atmosphere but not sure about coming here Sat night. Chap sat next to me at bar not long after got here for a bit, and some other chap has been sat at bar pretty much since I got here. Always seems odd to see other people drinking solo, maybe I just tend not to notice.

2012 Rolling Stones' "You can't always get you want" playing, raised a smile for some reason. We did have some Pink Floyd (from Wish You Were Here, can't be sure which track now) earlier too.

2048 Into slightly drunk contemplative mood, having fourth. This will be last unless something dramatic happens. Trying to dredge statistical knowledge up from depths of my brain. If members of a population have independent probability p of dying each year from birth (not realistic, I know), what is the expected lifespan of an individual? I am on the verge of convincing myself lifespans are Poisson distributed and thus the expected lifespan is 1/p. But I'd hesitate to put much money on it. Rolling Stones song can't remember title of but "we all need someone we can lean on" lyric playing.

2136 Getting a fifth (bite me, nothing dramatic happened), this is slightly OTT but on the other hand this is a relatively rare solo binge and I feel quite good so f it. Maybe I could have made an effort to socialise earlier but didn't feel need. Not that it's a problem - probably same as in Bariloche and it was cool to meet Colin there - but here it is probably so touristy anywhere I might go in Cusco it's more a question of socialising with fellow tourists than locals. Admittedly in Arequipa last Saturday - I realise as I write this I never blogged the details, maybe later, but I did cover them lightly in an email to Rab, so Future Steve can just read that as a memory jogger - I started the night with a Texan living in Arequipa to teach English but I ended it with a group of locals. Meh, last thing I want to be is a travel snob and I'd openly admit I love meeting anyone for a good chat, fuck their background, but still, Cusco - or at least the bars and also places I have been so far - is such a tourist mecca it's definitely more like Bariloche than (say) Puerto Montt, Arequipa probably lying somewhere between the two. Not that Arequipa isn't touristy - no shortage of tour operators in and near plaza - but that night in Brujas didn't feel too touristy (not that that's inherently a bad thing, even if I do feel more smug and also less boring if I meet locals - to a tourist I'm just an old-ish one of them, to a local I might be a bit more interesting).

Actually as I look round the bar an oldish group (older than me, I would estimate) group of tourists - or perhaps expats? - are playing pool. I'd still suggest the average punter here is a tourist of maybe 25-30 (perhaps it matters if you pick the mean or the mode). All this is based on dodgy inference, I fully admit. Saturday I might well try for conversation, it was never part of the plan tonight, not that staying out so late was either.

I'm sure Saturday will be busier but if I do come here Sat - and it's probably better than Crosse Keys, if only on price of a pint - I probably shouldn't turn up too early, 9 would be fine I guess.

2204 Musing randomly - lightly drunkleny, if you prefer - I am thinking about the holier-than-thou attitude to taking a tour to MP and they really can fuck off. Yes, sometimes being a tourist - traveller to use the smugger term - can be a challenge and sometimes in hindsight those challenges are strangely fun, but to deliberately seek out difficulties seems stupid. Life in general is tricky enough that there's no need to hunt out problems just for the hell of it.

Some people inside singing Happy Birthday To You. In a way it would be nice to live the - probably completely illusory - life of the smug young thing voyaging from hostel to hostel with new acquaintances everywhere made effortlessly in each new hostel (which I personally can't do, if anyone can, though to be scrupulously fair maybe I could if I really tried), but I do honestly feel (it helps being a bit introverted - but I do like to meet people too, I think the stereotypical binary definition of introversion is ridiculously unrealistic) it's better, from my perspective, to have the kind of encounters I have every now and then (eg Puerto Montt, maybe Arequipa counts) which you get when you're travelling solo and meet people who aren't doing the same. I do perhaps wish I could do that hostel friendship thing but if I could maybe I'd never get the other kind.

V nice views from bar balcony. For the record, after my irrational bile the other day, Cusco is v attractive with the colonial stone buildings and the hills around town, though the buildings on the hills look a bit poverty stricken even if they are attractive from a distance.

2222 Having another. This is OTT but I feel OK and I don't do it all the time and in general fuck you if you want to get judgmental. This probably will be the last. I believe hotel is 24h reception but haven't checked. I feel OK now but I am prob not too far off feeling pissed as opposed to pleasantly not really drunk but evidently it is affecting me, and while I am not worrying too much about my medically mandated alcohol allowance (I am relatively temperate in general) probably not great to push things, esp if want to be out Saturday. This is six pints and of 5.5% stuff too, good job I am an experienced toper but when the drunkenness hits it hits and I don't want that.

0113 Viva random drunkery. I struck up conversation with two women sat next to me (Helena & Elsa, at least phonetically) who were tourists from Lima. V enjoyable conversation, may meet them tomorrow night or failing that in Lima. They gave me a lift back in their taxi, the place was boarded up but on ringing the super-high bell they let me in.