Cusco

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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 the most strenuous undertaking I've ever done.. the main problem was the altitude. We had breakfast in the Machu Picchu Sanctuary hotel, which is run by the Orient Express group. It's the hotel that's actually located at the ruins, but you pay a high price to stay there, easily over $400 a night. Our guided tour of the ruins started at 11AM, though we had already seen most of the ruins by that point. We left for the train around 2 PM and were back in Cuzco late that evening.

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