Blogs from Lares Trek, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 4

So sunday was spent just shopping in cusco. Sorted out nearly everything. Monday we went on a sacred valley tour, with a visit to pisac inca ruins on the hill and down to the market. Then on to the ruins at ollytytambo, which were interesting because they were unfinished so we could see how they were put together. After that we dropped the rest of the group at km82, the site of their inca trail and went back to cusco. Tuesday we were up early to leave, arrived in calca in time for some breakfast in the market. Then onto lares for the hot springs. Not as nice as those we had been to in colca valley but still very nice. After we had a very good lunch, a promising start of food to come on ... read more

As I'm sure you all know we have both been looking forward to what for some is the jewel in South America's crown of amazing sights: Machu Picchu. However the actual "Inca trail" is booked up almost for a year in advance so we had known for some time we could not do the traditional trekking route to Machu Picchu but there are several alternative routes to trek which offer very different experiences. We have moaned before about booking treks but this experience has to take the biscuit. As mentioned in the previous blog Cusco was very touristy and you could barely walk down the street without someone trying to sell you trips to Machu Picchu or llama postcards or alpaca wool jumpers/ponchos/hats/tea cosies/pants. Most important to us when choosing our tour company was that they ... read more

Little Peruvians...... read more

Day 55 Got to Cusco early doors and wandered up to Loki where we thought we had our room booked. They informed us we were on a waiting list so we sacked it off and found a nice little guesthouse and went stright for naps. Had a late brekkie and watched the quali for Canada and then pottered around the town and did some jobs and organising for Machu Picchu trek. Day 56 Moved to a different guesthouse with a telly in the room so we could wach the f1 and then did some more exploring of cusco which is a very pleasant little spot. Had a briefing for the trek in the eve where we met Ruben, our guide for the trek (who turned out to be both a legend and a little bit mental) ... read more

hey all! this is our first official blog of our time spent traveling in peru. we are only traveling for 2 weeks, and more than one has already gone by. so much has happened since then, so i´ll do my best to relate it to you. this entry will only be of the first week, the cusco week, just to space things out properly we left la merced by a night bus, which was probably the best decision of both of our lives. most. comfortable. seats. ever. slept the whole way. anyway, we arrived in lima bright and early (actually it was still dark- we arrived at 4:30). we just chilled in a main plaza for a while before getting breakfast and looking around a few churches. we saw catacombes in one, which was very interesting. ... read more

The last four days have been a challenge. Altitude, cold weather and long days hiking over high passes in Peru have taken their toll. We are exhausted and trying to catch up on sleep before we head back to Ecuador tonight. But it was completely worth it. Machu Picchu is an amazing place and we got to see a part of Peru that people rarely get to see, a sample of highland life and the connection between highlanders in Peru and the Incan civilization. We decided to dothe Lares valley trek that included Machu Picchu because we would get to see past and present cultures of highland Peru, not just the incan trail. There is also significantly less people on Lares Valley. We didn´t see any other groups on our hike. The trip started in Cuzco, ... read more