Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Saturday 24 April
La Paz, Bolivia – Cusco, Peru

So basically all of today was spent travelling to Cusco. You can’t go overnight because you have to cross the border in the middle. The bus isn’t the best but it’s perfectly fine. My dodgy stomach is playing up a bit but I go to the toilet at the border and after that it’s fine.

I sleep for most of the way. There’s not much available in terms of proper food, so I end up eating snacks for most of the time. They gave us lunch on the bus, but that was snacks too. By the time I arrive in Cusco the food has made me feel like crap, despite having slept for most of the time.

I check in to the hostel and head into town for a proper meal which makes me feel a bit better. It’s my first view of the city and it looks fantastic. A proper tourist town but in a good way – the mix of Inca and colonial architecture together, well preserved. It’s beautiful, definitely the most beautiful city I’ve been to in South America.

Back at the hostel there’s a band playing. I join with a couple of people from my dorm and listen. I spy an opportunity. You know what it is. The band have a wheel by the side of the stage that people spin and based on that they play something. It had come up with “Reggae” the last three times – it was badly weighted. They asked someone from our table to come up, no one wanted to so I went up on their behalf. I span the wheel and it landed on Reggae again, which was boring, so I moved it on to the next section, which just happened to be “Request.” Sensing an opportunity I asked them if they knew Mr. Jones by Counting Crows. They didn’t so I mentioned that I could play it on the acoustic guitar which was sitting on stage.

They were OK with that and then the singer asked me if I knew the lyrics. Well of course, I offered to sing it as well. So I ended up playing the song with the band. They didn’t know the chords so while I played the bass player looked at what I was playing and then communicated that to the rest of the band. We got by OK – the band was pretty good – and played the whole song. It went down a storm and there was a big cheer at the end, I think the biggest of the night – but then I would say that.

Afterwards I joined up with a big group and we headed out to a bar called Bullfrog. It’s a really nice place with cool decor and two for one drinks. I had a few and then went home.