From the Coast to the Andes

Hola from Ollantaytambo! The last couple of days have started to feel like a holiday - we've done and seen a lot of different things since leaving Lima. We flew from there to Cuzco for our first inkling of how we might cope with altitude - Cuzco is 3,350m above sea level and if you're going to get altitude sickness, you'll probably find out here! We seemed to cope alright, apart from huffing and puffing up the 4 flights of stairs to our room, but since the highest point of the Inca Trail is 4,200m (higher than Mt Cook), the bigger challenge is yet to come.
Cuzco is the original centre of the Inca Empire and still has lots of 5-600 year old foundation stones, often topped by grand colonial Spanish churches or buildings. It's a really pretty and vibrant city, everyone is friendly, even when you refuse whatever it is they're trying to sell you! (There are heaps of tourists and everything that springs up around that industry). We found a little restaurant on the main square with a view of the cathedral and surrounding buildings, and Aaron's one wish for this trip came true: he got to eat the famous local delicacy of Guinea Pig. He described the taste as being quite beefy, but the method of eating it was like chicken, as it was served as a hindquarter complete with bones. Not delicious enough to try again. Today we moved on to the Sacred Valley, stopping in a tiny village to see some of the locals spinning alpaca wool. One of the drawbacks of being on a tour is the unadvertised stops to buy things, but this was actually really cool, so many unbelievably cute children wanting photos taken and llamas and alpacas wandering through the village.
We saw the ruins at Pisac and Ollantaytambo, which is an unfinished Inca temple; we imagined what the Inca workers might have been thinking when the Conquistadors arrived - the enormous stones they were dragging to the site were left where they lay, and where we saw them today.
Tomorrow morning is what we've really been excited about: we begin the Inca Trail! We got a taste of what it might be like today hiking around the ruins, but from tomorrow we'll have packs on our backs, we'll be walking for 8 hours a day, and we'll be at altitude. Lucky we bought a huge bag of coca leaves for the journey!
Wish us luck!