Moved out of the tour group hotel into a local B&B, still in Miraflores. The owner was really good and welcoming, and had arranged breakfast for me. (I did not have the heart to refuse even though I had already had breakfast). Really excellent service, he even emailed me a couple of days earlier to make sure I had my transport from the airport arranged. He gave me some maps of things to see in Lima, and even called a taxi to take me to the Museo de la Nacion. National Museum. Really good. Got a guide from the Museum (for [View Full Entry]

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Flight back from Cuzco to Lima was only an hour and quite uneventful. Spent a couple of hours around Miraflores doing nothing in particular. Final dinner with the tour group before everyone goes separate ways. Sad that the the tour is over, but happy that had the opportunity for a great tour around Peru. [View Full Entry]

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Arrived back in Cuzco last night after taking train from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo. Spent today wandering the streets, went to a couple of churchy type places - Convento de la Merced, and Catedral del Cuzco (really big cathedral, heaps of gold leaf over cedar carvings, heaps of religious pictures, including one with the last supper, but with a Guinea Pig as the main meal). Also went to an Inca Museum. (It is wierd, in Europe the museums, churches, and art galleries are really crowded but here in Peru they are relatively quiet even though some of the art, history, and [View Full Entry]

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Yesterday´s trip to Machu Picchu and climb up Huayna Picchu was really just an optional extra. But I could not just hang around in Aguas Calientes when Machu Picchu was only half an hour away on a bus. Today the tour group got up early to catch a bus from Agaus Calientes to Machu Picchu to get there before the people on day trips from Cuzco. Got to Machu Picchu about 7am, and most of us walked up to the Sun Gate to get the classic postcard views of Machu Picchu. About the same height as Huayna Picchu but certainly not [View Full Entry]

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Up early to catch the train from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu Pueblo, or Aguas Calientes. Got to Aguas Calientes about 1030am, seemed the most touristy place so far in Peru. But what do you expect. Although there is a lot more to see, Machu Pichu is obviously one of the main reasons people come to Peru. Had the option of spending the rest of the day hanging around Aguas Calientes or going to Machu Pichu and hiking up Huayna Picchu, which is the hill you see in the background of the classic pictures of Machu Pichu. No choice really. The climb [View Full Entry]

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Today was spent travelling from Cuzco along the Ollantaytambo Valley to some Inca constructions at Ollantaytambo itself. To hard core travellers going on organised tours is a bit of a soft option, but today it was excellent because the guide was a local university history professor and politician. He knew heaps about the valley, about Inca history, and about Pervian history and politics. If you were travelling independently it would be pretty hard to get that sort of insight to the place you were visiting. Anyway the local guide took us to a few places along the Ollantaytambo Valley. [View Full Entry]

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Okay, so spent the afternoon wandering around Cuzco. Cuzco was the Inca Capital, and full of Inca palaces. You can see a lot of Inca Stonework, which usually forms the base of buildings, and on top you see Spanish Colonial architecture. When the Spanish arrived they used the original Inca work as the foundations for their own buildings, hence the conbination of styles. I have to say the Inca work makes the Spanish look quite crude. Nevertheless there are some excellent Spanish Cathedrals around the main square. The tour guide said that Cuzco was a city prone to earthquakes. When earthq [View Full Entry]

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Went to bed about 7pm last night, (trying to rest because of the altitude) but got woken up about 8 or 9pm by the the tour group guide who called everyone down to the hotel lobby. She said that a strike had been called and that when this happens people tend to block roads by putting rocks on them, which can cause delays ... they can also hold up the traffic by asking for bribes ... She suggested that instead of driving to Cuzco during the day that we leave pretty much straight away and travel overnight. This is what we [View Full Entry]

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Woke up not feeling too well, but lungs not burning like the night before, probably the altitude, managed to have some breakfast. Another trip with a local operator. First stop was a area with a whole bunch of stone sculptures, and what they meant, and how they were changed and developed by the different people of the area in ancient times. Next stop was a local Sunday market. Thousands of people selling buying and selling heaps of different types of potatoes, vegatables, fish, chickens, pottery, and heaps of other stuff, ... If you wanted to you could pay one of the [View Full Entry]

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Up early for the flight from Arequipa to Juliaca (nearest airport to Puno). The flight was only 25 minutes and was surprisingly painless. The plane was modern and there was plenty of leg room. The steward even handed out lollies. Got to Puno after a drive from Juliaca Airport, but not before we were surrounded by people selling all sorts of local handy crafts or people just begging, as we were loading our bags on to the top of the bus. Puno is about 3800m above sea level, but I did not feel anything from the thin air initially. In the [View Full Entry]

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