Peru

Apr 18-22, 2019
UA854 IAH-LIM, AV855 LIM-CUZ, AV144 CUZ-BOG, UA1006 BOG-IAH

We’ve been wanting to go to Machu Picchu for a long time, and through the recommendation of a friend, found a tour company that was able to put together a nice itinerary around the Easter weekend. Although our main goal was Machu Picchu, we made sure that we had days in the area bookended by time in Cusco. We were concerned about rain potentially impacting our views of the citadel and surrounding mountains, but we were extremely lucky and only get rained on briefly the entire trip. As there were no direct flights to Cusco, we had an evening flight to Lima from Houston where we stayed overnight.

Apr 19

After our morning flight from Lima to Cusco, we were met by our tour company at the airport who transported us to our hotel to refresh before our day of touring Cusco and the immediate surrounding area. Cusco is at an altitude of 3400m or 11,200’, so we were also using the day to get used to the higher altitude. The hotel claimed to pump in concentrated oxygen to facilitate with the transition; I’m not sure if it was effective, but while we did notice the difference in the air, we adjusted relatively well to the change.

Interior courtyard of our hotel in a restored 16th century convent

Beautifully groomed alpaca was a regular in the hotel courtyard

One of the two bronze statue in Santa Catalina Plaza near our hotel

The second statue in the plaza

Main cathedral of Cusco began construction in 1559

Central fountain of Plaza de Armas

Stonework of the aAncient walls of the Sacsayhuamman Citadel was the historical capital of the Inca Empire

Llama roamed around the Sacsayhuaman massive grounds

Broad perspective of the massive Sacsayhuaman complex

Looking down at the surrounding area from the main structure

The sprawling town of Cusco with the surrounding mountains

Cristo Blanco statue on Pakamuqu Mountain

Q’enqo, “zig-zag”, another archaeological site in the Scared Valley

Altar inside a subterranean cave in Q’enqo site

Forest and fortifications outside of Q’enqo

Another perspective on Cusco and its main stadium

View of scared valley from Pukapukara temple structure

Another handsome alpaca outside a shop selling wool products

A more freshly shorn alpaca

Back in Cusco exploring Qorikancha temple ruins

Santo Domingo Convent inside the Qorikancha grounds

Surrounding fortifications of the ruins

Although this trip was all about Machu Picchu, we really enjoyed our first day in Cusco. After a busy day of touring, we found a nice dinner in a small restaurant in the old city before turning in for the night in our oxygenated hotel room.

Apr 20

After breakfast in the hotel, we checked out ready to start our Machu Picchu adventure. On the way, we drove through the Sacred Valley to catch our train to Aguas Calientes, our base for our two days in Macchu Picchu. Shortly after we took the bus up the winding road to the Inca city the skies opened up. Our guide assured us that it would be a brief shower and thankfully he was right.

Climbing our way out of Cusco into the surrounding mountains

Making our way through the sacred valley near Machu Colca

View of Urubamba River from our train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes

More of the Urubamba River from the train

The clouds were still visible above the Urubamba River valley

Our first Machu Picchu sighting with Wayna Picchu mountain in the background

Residential ruins of the massive 15th century complex

Looking further down the valley from the end of the trail to the Inca Drawbridge

The intricately engineered Incan Drawbridge and trail was the exit of escape to the jungle

Full view of the ruins and Wayna Picchu Mountain — part of our climbing challenge for the following day

As we make our way into the ruins, we are greeted by more blue skies

Making our way through the ruins. Although they limited the number of tickets it was still pretty crowded

Checking out the local wildlife around the ruins

Viscacha was a unique local rodent that look a lot like rabbits, but not particularly close to them

They Viscacha really liked navigating the bricks

Continuing our way through the complex provided more magnificent views

Tom’s continued study of the Viscacha

Looking up at Machu Picchu mountain, we can see the terraced agriculture lands that stretch far down the mountain

As we’re getting near the end of the day, we had more of the complex to ourselves

We were incredibly lucky to have had such a wonderful first day at Machu Picchu, far exceeding our initial expectations. At the end of the day, there was a long wait for the bus, so we ended up waiting over an hour before we could start down the mountain and get back to our hotel.

Apr 21

For our second day in Machu Picchu, I had planned two mountain hikes. Our guide was skeptical of our ability to handle both hikes, but we made it through and started our way up Wayna Picchu (from 8000’ to 9000’) with a timed 7:00am start, followed by a 9:45am hike up Machu Picchu (to 10,100’). The trail was a bit narrow and winding, but the elevation changes were the hardest part of the trail. We were some of the first people on the first trail which made it a lot easier.

Early morning start outside our hotel in Aguas Calientes

Heading to our bus, we grabbed a pic of the town sign

View of the snow-capped mountains beyond the valley

Looking back down on the ruins and our next destination behind, the peak of Machu Picchu Mountain

Looking down at the narrow steps of the Wayna Picchu trail, just climbed

Wildflowers growing through the stones

Looking up at the many stairs ahead

One the huts near the peak

More wildflowers

Taking a brief rest at the peak

Broad perspective on the temple and surrounding valley

Great perspective on the size and scope of the ancient ruins

Navigating the trickier tunnel on the way down… thankfully it was a one way path

A wild orchid along the trail

Quiet early morning perspective of the ruins with our conquered mountain behind us

Part way up the higher Machu Picchu mountain, our guide left us to finish the climb ourselves, as he had an earlier train back towards Cusco

Closer to the peak, the perspective on the ruins gets better

The surrounding mountains would be stunning even without the Incan ruins

Looking back on the detail of our Wayna Picchu trail; our earlier hike

Broad perspective of the valley and the twisting Urubamba River

Celebrating our arrival at the top

Checking out the vegetation as we slowly make our way back down

More wild flowers

Making our way down the steps

One last llama shot before we wait for our bus back down to the town for our train out

Our train back to Ollantaytambo and onto Cusco

After our afternoon train to Ollantaytabmo, we arrived into some crazy Easter weekend traffic. Although the town was in complete gridlock, we walked from the train to get a little closer, but it still took a long time to get back to Cusco. We took a new bypass highway that was mostly done, but it was a very weird combination of new road and gravel trails. We arrived well after dark and had dinner and drinks in the hotel.

Apr 22

For our last day in Peru, we had time to explore more of Cusco. As we were still a little sore from the hikes the day before, we took it relatively easily as we’d already seen most of the major attractions.

One of the many dogs that roamed the streets

Old gate and Cusco city walls

Original walls and Cusco cobblestoned Loreto Street, after a very brief shower

Cathedral dome

The exterior of our converted convent hotel, the JW Marriott El Convento Cusco

Narrow streets of San Blas neighbourhood

After a relatively quite day, we checked out of the hotel in the afternoon for a flight to Bogota where we had a long layover before our overnight flight to Houston, capping the end of our visit to country #93.