Cuzco - Walking through the ruins
Cuzco is a beautiful collection of brown-tiled colonial Spanish buildings built on the ruins and cobbles of the ancient Incan empire. Our jaws dropped upon our arrival to the city center, the cathedral and the mountains surrounding it are majestic. The Plaza de Armas is a place I could spend days in, very pleasant, fountains, flowers, grass that is perfect and puffy white clouds in a mountain sky. We watched groups of children practicing their traditional dance around the plaza to Andean flute and drum music - heaven!
After purchasing our tourist tickets which give you entrance into several sites, we did the ¨Ruins walk¨from Tambo Machay back to Cuzco. A bus takes you up into the mountains and you walk the 7 km back down to the city. Along the way are four very impressive Incan ruins each of which had a different purpose - one was a water collection site, one was a fortress, and one was a battlement wall shaped like puma teeth. They used stones bigger than the ones used to build the pyramids, and the cracks between the stones are so tight, you can´t put a piece of paper between them. The walk was very sunny and beautiful - through Andean villages, past baby pigs, llamas, dogs, and the occasional chicken. 
We seemed to be the only tourists doing the walk, and couldn´t understand why because it was such a great way to see the traditional Andean life. Our feet and hips hurt so much when we arrived at the Christ statue above Cuzco. Jen started to feel lightheaded and the effects of altitude were becoming clear.
Over the next few hours, both of us succumbed to the effects of altitude sickness, and Tim ate his Argentian steak dinner on the floor of the restaurant (too lightheaded to sit in a chair). The waiters at the restaurant thought we were loony I´m sure, but both of us were not doing too well. Needless to say, we hobbled back to the hotel, woozy and close to fainting, but we made it. We were in bed by 8 p.m. and slept solidly for 11 hours, despite the fireworks being set off for the grand Cuzco celebration. Bed has never felt so comfortable.