We arrived at km 104, the start of our trek toward Machu Picchu, at around 7:30 am.  The train stopped to let us and a couple dozen other hikers off at this access to the Inka Trail, and we met our guide Jorge, who had walked in from Aguas Callientes that morning (only about a one and-a-half hour hike) to meet us.  Jorge had a great sense of humour, lots of knowledge to impart, answered pretty much everything we thought to ask, and made sure we didn't get too tired or worn out as we hiked.

​We stopped at a couple of ruins along the way, saw another in the distance, and enjoyed the incredible scenery, as well as a lovely boxed lunch provided by the tour company.  This was pretty much the first day that I had more than soup for all three meals; nothing wrong with the food, it just took that long for my system to adjust to things.  By around 2:30, we made it to the Sun Gate of Machu Picchu and had our first sight of the famous city.

We made our way down from the Sun Gate to a fantastic view of Machu Picchu on a fairly clear day.  Then we hiked down to Aguas Callientes, or Machu Picchu town, found our hostel and got cleaned up, had supper with our guide, then went to bed early, as we had to be up and waiting for the buses back up by 4:30 am.  Machu Picchu doesn't open until 6, and the buses leave around 5:30, but to have a guaranteed seat, you have to line up early.

In the weeks leading up to our trip, we kept an eye on the long-range weather forecast.  It showed rain for our entire 10-day trip.  While a couple of days had the occasional spittle the you only noticed as it stopped, the day of our explorations of Machu Picchu called for 100% rain.  And didn't lie.  Jorge had us for 2 hours, whereupon we could reenter the site and stay as long as we wanted.  For the first maybe hour of Jorge's explanations, it remained mostly foggy and overcast (it had rained in the night).  This gave the rather awesome effect of the city seeming to float in the mist as the clouds floated past, lending a certain air of the ethereal to the mystical ruins.

And then the rain started again.  A steady drizzle that turned into a gentle downpour, then into a pretty awesome demonstration of how well the drainage still worked in Machu Picchu.  Those Incas sure knew how to build!  The last of our guided tour happened in a bit of a rush as dozens of sodden tourists quickly made their way to a couple of shelters near the exit.  Jorge finished up his presentation under the thatched roof, then bid us a wonderful day, leaving us to our own devices.

As the train back to Ollantaytambo didn't leave until 6:30 that evening, and it hadn't yet reached 8 am, we decided to wait out the rain for a bit, then just dove back in, seeing as we were already wet.  Somehow, our timing worked out, as the downpour eased back to a steady drizzle, then just overcast skies.  Leaving us a very pleasant day to explore the ruins.

About a 15 minute hike from Machu Picchu, you'll find the Inka Bridge.  We didn't know what to expect, but went to take a look.  You're required to sign in before you can take the trail, then sign out again, presumably so that they know if anyone's fallen off the edge of the cliff on the way to the bridge.  I'm not joking.  It's a narrow trail in places (no more than a couple feet wide) and most of it open to the air.  I loved it.

As we approached the bridge (you can look, but you can't cross), and I saw the huge plank spanning the space, I thought, 'neat, but so what?'  And then I took a closer look and the whole architectural marvel of it just about blew my mind.  The plank is not the interesting part; the sheer volume of stones put in place over 500 years ago, along a vertical cliff face in the middle of nowhere without the use of scaffold or mortar, and still mostly intact--that's just damned impressive.  You do truly have to see it to get the full impact, and pictures don't do it justice, but I've included one here anyway.  Just amazing.

Eventually, we made our way back down to Aguas Callientes (walking rather than getting a bus), had some food, and caught our train.  We knew that we would share the bus back with Cuzco with some other Salkantay trekkers, and had a moment of worry having to listen to a rowdy group on the train (and getting rowdier and more obnoxious with every beer they tossed back) with Salkantay packs (we really wanted to apologise for the most obnoxious, as he loudly claimed Canada as his home).  Luckily, our bus had the other worried train passengers, leaving the party bus to annoy a different driver.  Our group pretty much slept back to Cuzco, much to everyone's relief.

We spent another couple of nights in Cuzco, but really only one day, as the bus didn't arrive until after 10:30 pm, and the flight back to Lima left at 8:30 am.  We checked out a market with everything you could possibly need, from knitwear and souvenirs to fruit and raw chicken, and most things in between.  Then off to Lima.

We met an entrepreneur named Juan that Mike had made a connection with for lunch at a fabulous (and slightly schmoozy) restaurant called La Mer, where we had cebiche (or ceviche, if you want to Americanized spelling), the must-have Peruvian seafood dish.  Mike and Juan talked about UAVs and how Mike and Aeryon might help Juan with various humanitarian efforts he has a hand in.  Juan ordered a wonderful selection of dishes for us (including octopus--delish!) so I don't know what all we had, but every bite was fantastic.  Dipped our toes in the ocean, just to say we did.  Despite the surfers, it was too cold to swim, though the hang gliders had some impressive updrafts.

​We had planned a walking tour of Lima (we stayed in the Miraflores district, and this tour would have taken us into Lima proper), but despite about 8 or 10 of us gathered, no guide showed up, though when Mike called, they said someone would come the next day.  Wouldn't work for us, as this was our final day.  So we set off with 3 others of the group for a bit of a wander to the food market.  After a bit, Mike and I decided to just head back to our Airbnb, taking in some shops and parks along way.

Had some causa for supper--again, a Peruvian dish.  Basically a mashed potato sandwich with whatever filling they have on offer.  I had mine filled with avocado and tuna.  Peru has something like 3000 different kinds of potato, and maybe half that for different kinds of corn.  Whatever variety of potato bracketed my causa, it seemed nice enough.

Our driver arrived around 1:30 am to take us to the airpoirt for our 5 am flight home, saying that night traffic is pretty bad, given all the early flights.  That said, we had smooth sailing (or driving) and made it to the airport with lots of time to spare.  Some turbulence on the flight, but we made it home all safe and sound.

Besides the fantastic scenery, Peru has some great food and wonderful people.  If you've ever thought of going, I highly recommend it!

Mike had some time off work this fall and we knew we wanted to go somewhere, but hadn't settled on a destination yet.  We started to compile a list and research the best time to see various places.  Turns out our target month of November doesn't have a lot going for it in terms of weather for most of our desired locations: many of the islands and tourist hot-spots in Greece shut down in October; much of Europe turns as grey and miserable as home; we did New Zealand last year.  We weren't looking for anything Caribbean this time (and just as well, given the horrible damage of this past hurricane season) and didn't really want to do anything in Asia.  Costa Rica remains on the list (possibly something in late winter to escape our Ontario frigidness), but we finally settled on Peru, despite November heralding the start of their rainy season.

We decided this in October, and that we would travel early to mid-November.  Which gave us less than a month to prepare.  Vaccines, crash course in Spanish (Duolingo says I'm 61% fluent after 3 weeks), researching what to do and where to go and then booking flights, accomodations, and tours--we somehow managed it all while keeping sane and not panicking.

Final itinerary: Fly direct to Lima from Toronto on a 6 pm flight that landed at 2 am.  Hang around the airport until 5:30 am and fly to Cuzco (3400 metres, or 11 150 feet).  Transport to hotel to begin acclimatising to the height, stay for 2 nights.  Tour by bus to Pisac & Ollantaytambo ruins (2800 metres, or 9200 feet), and stay in Ollantaytambo for 2 nights.  Two day trek to Machu Picchu (2400 metres, or 8000 feet) [actually, 1 day trek, night in Aguas Callientes, then 2nd day at Machu Picchu], with train & bus ride back to Cuzco, arriving around 10:30 pm.  Stay in Cuzco for 2 nights, then fly back to Lima for 2 nights, then home on a 5 am flight.

So off we went ...

We arrived in Cuzco somewhat exhausted, though I managed more sleep on the plane than Mike.  Interrupted sleep, what with that 2 am landing and layover, but sleep nonetheless.  You know that feeling when you realise that the snippet of rest actually made you feel worse because of the interruption, and you just wish you'd stayed awake instead?  Yeah ...

Anyway, we got to Cuzco airport around 7 am and ... no transportation waiting for us, despite Mike making arrangements the morning before we left.  No problem; lots of taxis.  Nice driver, pointed out some of the sights, gave some advice, drove without much regard to lanes, turn signals, or how close the next motorist or motorcyclist drove beside us--in other words, exactly like every other driver in Peru.  Somehow it all stays very civil and we saw no accidents (or blood from pedestrians skimming by millimetres from the vehicles).  Arrived at our hotel and left our bags while they finished preparing our room (this is 7:30 in the morning, and folks are very accommodating).  So many flights in Lima and Cuzco arrive or leave at late/early hours that everyone is used to it and make the best out of it.  While we waited, we wandered over to the Plaza de Armas, about a block away.  At this point, I can feel the altitude in the form of a slight headache, and shortness of breath, and that's with the medication suggested for altitude sickness.  Peruvians have coca tea to help combat this, but our taxi driver pointed out that it also boosts energy, so if we wanted to rest, having a drink of coca tea would not get the job done.  At any rate, we had a little sit down in the square, and soon a group of teens approached and wanted to sit with us.  After much fumbling with words and gestures, we figured out they wanted a selfie with us.  Seemed strange, but what the heck.  They got their pictures, thanked us profusely, and went on their way.  As this happened again on our second pass through Cuzco, we figured this is either a bizarre high school fetish (get you picture taken with tourists), or some kind of class project.

We spent a couple of days in Cuzco, saw a couple of museums, a few churches (no pictures allowed--they all have a lot of niches and gold- or silver-gilded spaces, statuary, stonework, artwork, all in buildings lacking windows so it's a little dark and gloomy, and sometimes rather gaudy), fascinating architecture, tourists, some alpacas led around by traditionally garbed Peruvians, and lots of alpaca sweaters.  And, of course, cobbled streets, stairs, and steep hills.

We used Salkantay Tours for our two treks.  They picked us up from our hotel in Cuzco and, together with a family of four (parents and 2 grown sons in their early 20s), we headed off on our first trek; Cuzco to Pisac to Ollantaytambo--all part of the Sacred Valley.  Both Pisac and Ollantaytambo have Incan ruins and Marco, our guide, provided some fascinating information.  The term Inca actually refers to the leader, or king, not to the people, and there were only 11 Incas, the 9th being the most famous, as he initiated the building of Machu Picchu, as well as most of the other sacred sites.  Most of the ruins had a spiritual significance to the Inca culture, built high in the mountains to commune more closely with Pachamama (you can loosely think of this goddess as Mother Nature) and Pachapapa (her consort).  But the sites also had strategic importance, seeing as the Andeans were a war-like society.  These cities both watched the passes heading to Cuzco (the 'navel' of their world, and most important city where the Inca lived), and provided waypoints to those travelling along the many Inca Passes.

The town of Ollantaytambo itself, where we stayed for a couple of nights, has a neat blend of tourist and locals.  We saw school kids in their uniforms brushing elbows with backpackers, native speakers (either speaking Spanish or Quechuan, the descendants of the Inca people) conversing with foreigners--Mike found google translate especially helpful in obtaining some take out soup--tourist police and taxi drivers, all getting along.  As November is a shoulder season in Peru, the streets aren't as crowded as high season, so the folks trying to entice you in to their restaurants do try to get your attention (though not nearly as aggressively as in Cuzco), but tend to leave you alone when you indicate your disinterest.  In Cuzco, you pretty much have to pretend they don't exist in the first place, or every seller follows you around.  Ollantaytambo had a more relaxed ambiance.  And being lower in altitude, we had no problems with shortness of breath, though the streets are no less steep.

We had an early train to take us toward the start of our Inca Trail hike, though thankfully not as early had we started in Cuzco, as many treks do.  Salkantay Tours happily accommodated our to schedule, and while Peru has many tour companies who would likely have done the same accommodations, we had a great experience with Salkantay.
So, on to our day trek and Machu Picchu ...