Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru) We had booked the tour to the Sacred Valley, Pisac and Ollantaytambo for the day. We had missed the main Pisac market on Saturday, but they still have smaller markets on other days of the week. The Sacred Valley is a very fertile valley along the Urubamba river that was the homeland of the Inca. Over 1000 varieties of maize were at one time grown in the valley. We visited the Pisac ruins, then stopped for a buffet lunch. When we arrived at Ollantaytambo, there was an Epiphany festival going on, with people [View Full Entry]

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Train: Aguas Calientes to Cuzco Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru) $65 We woke up very early this morning to catch the first bus up to the ruins. It was looking like it was going to be a gorgeous day, with a clear blue sky. When we arrived in the ruins, the first Inca trail hikers were just starting to arrive. We ran into the Swedish girls again that we had met on the Colca trip, one of them was in pretty bad shape from the hike. I had done the hike on my previous trip; it's by far [View Full Entry]

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Train: Cuzco to Aguas Calientes (http://www.perurail.com) Hotel: Aquas Calientes (Machu Picchu, Peru) A very early start at 5:45AM as we had to get to the train station for Machu Picchu. The train is the only way to get to the ruins now, unless you hike in on the Inca trail. We had the hotel pack us a couple of lunchboxes for the trip. We planned on spending the night in Machu Picchu village, to spend more time in the ruins after all the tourists had left. The train station was complete chaos, with hundreds of tourists milling about, we managed to [View Full Entry]

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Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru) $95 We moved over to the Sonesta hotel this morning, it was right off the square, and right across the street from the hotel where I had stayed in 1998. We were upgraded to the suite, which had a great view out over the rooftops and into the Plaza! We had several errands today, laundry and arranging our tours to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. We visited several of the museums on the Cuzco visitors ticket today. I had missed Qoricancha on my previous trip, what a mistake! It was fabulous inside [View Full Entry]

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Bus: Puno to Cuzco (http://www.perucuzco.com/imexsotours/transport.htm) Hotel: Libertador Hotel (Cuzco, Peru) $162 We left the hotel at 7 AM for the 6 hr bus ride to Cuzco. The train had been the preferred transportation on this route before the paved road was completed a few years ago. There are several buses that run the route, we took the non-tourist bus that goes straight through without stopping. The VCR broke halfway through Troy. When we arrived in Cuzco, the Sonesta hotel was not available, so we decided to splurge for one night at the Libertador hotel. The location is right a [View Full Entry]

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Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Lake Titicaca (Puno, Peru) $65 Yesterday was pretty much a down day for us; we had been hitting the sights pretty hard for the past week and needed a day to relax. The altitude was a convenient excuse for not getting up to too much! We did go into town for a few hours and wandered around the markets, buying a few blankets and other souvenirs. It was NYE and the locals were selling bags of confetti, charcoal, and other festive items. Most Peruvians celebrate NYE with their families, rather than out in the streets. It [View Full Entry]

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Flight: Arequipa to Juliaca, LanPeru 131 (320) Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Lake Titicaca (Puno, Peru) $65 We had all mornining free before our afternoon flight to Puno. We decided to visit the Santa Catalina convent in Arequipa; this was totally closed off to outsiders until the late 1970's! It's a truly magical place, very photogenic with red, white, and blue colored walls, and flowers and citrus trees everywhere. Different parts of the convent are designed to look like regions in Spain. Take lots and lots of film or memory cards with you! Afterwards, we decided to visit the Juani [View Full Entry]

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Bus: Chivay to Arequipa Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Arequipa (Arequipa, Peru) $41 An early rise this morning at 5 am for the 2 hr drive to the Cruz del Condor overlook. The scenery was just incredible that morning, the light was perfect on the villages and terraced slopes that we passed by. Along the way, our guide described many of the local plants the Incas used for food and medicine. Traditionally there were two tribes that lived in the Colca area; in pre-colonial times they used to bind their skulls differently so they could be easily identified. One tribe would [View Full Entry]

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Bus: Arequipa to Chivay Hotel: Pozo del Cielo, Colca Canyon (Chivay, Peru) The Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world; over 3000m from the peaks to the valley floor below. Until recently it was thought to be the deepest, but that title now belongs to another nearby canyon. The main town of Chivay was a 5+ hr bus ride from Arequipa over a 14,000 ft pass, only partially paved. We stopped at a store on the edge of Arequipa to buy coca leaves; the locals chew these with lye to help stave off the effects of altitude [View Full Entry]

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Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca (Arequipa, Peru) $41 The bus finally arrived into Arequipa around noon. Arequipa is known as the White City due to the use of a local volcanic rock, called sillar, in many of the buildings. It was a gorgeous day when we arrived, but El Misti, the local volcano, lived up to its name. The Sonesta Posada del Inca Hotel occupied a great location right on the Plaza del Armas. We had a room overlooking the plaza, which turned out to be very quiet. The hotel recommended the Tradición Arequipeña restaurant for lunch, about a 10 minute [View Full Entry]

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