Travellers in Peru enter into a new phase

Hi everyone,
We have now finished with our volunteer work and the children and mothers gave us a party we will never forget. There would have been around 80 children in this very small room. There were games, songs, dances and wonderful food prepared by the mothers and children.
One game was very memorable.... two children had a handful of shaving cream and had to say a Spanish word in English. We knew what was coming...... Rob and I had to stand in the middle of the room and say what the English word was in Spanish. Rob was the one with the shaving cream smothered down his face..... I always wanted to do that!!!
The next day we travelled back to Lima for a couple of nights to rest and organise the next stage of our adventure.
We flew LanChile from Lima to Cusco with one big hiccup. Our travel agent in Huancayo wrote the wrong time for departure on our ticket and we missed the plane. LanChile where very good and put us on the next flight. At first they were going to charge us but realised it was not our fault.
When we arrived in Cusco where were totally stunned by the change in this city from 10 years ago. It was full of up market shops ie. clothing, restaurants, jewellery etc. and tourists from all over the world as the Festival of the Sun was in full progress. This festival is an annual event depicting life as it was 500 years ago in the Inca time. It was very colourful with dances and Inca rituals over 2-3 days. There was also the sacrifice of a llama on the ceremonial stonework table by the kings of all the different Inca tribes. They killed the llama, cut out its stomach, liver, heart etc then pulled out these organs and put them on the burning fire, then tasted these in front of 25,000 people.
That night we caught up with our friend Andres.... he was our guide 10 years ago and we have always kept in touch. He now owns a restaurant in Cusco and was having a BIG party that night. He was so thrilled to see us and were invited to this party as his personal guests. One condition was that everyone wear WINGS, so we had to find the costume shop and buy some wings. Rob had white swan wings with a gold halo over his head and Maxine had pink butterfly wings with matching wand and hair band. The party was outrageous with gold and silver painted nymphs, doing acrobatic moves from the ceiling, strobe lighting everywhere and the loudest DJ we have ever heard. In the middle of the dance floor was a five metre high silver painted angel... the name of the restaurant is the Fallen Angel.... look it up on the Internet!!!!
We spent a few hours there before heading back to our hotel for an early morning departure to Ollantaytambo.. where we are now about one and a half hours drive from Cusco towards Mucchu Picchu.
This town is amazing too. It is as though the Inca people 500 years ago, have just got up and walked away and left it. The streets are so narrow with cobble stones and irrigation systems running beside the footpaths and in between the houses. Once again there are tourists everywhere.
Our hotel, which is absolutely quite unique, has the front door on the platform of the railway station. There are only trains during the day so very quite at night. It is run by an English couple and is surrounded by beautiful gardens and is painted white and Spanish influence. We will be here for 4 nights before heading back to Lima.
Until then, it´s bye from the Peruvian travellers. Photos next time.
Maxine and Robert.