Another early morning wake up for our flight to Lima. I hope that's the last time we have to do that. It's such a drag. Cusco airport didn't have much to offer for the two hours we had to wait there. The flight was quick though and we arrived in Lima at about 9:00. We took a taxi to the hostel. On the way there we passed by the Pacific Ocean. We're on the West Coast again! We stayed in the sister hostel of the place we were at in Cusco. It's also called Hitchhike...

Took the wonderful Peru Rail train again from Machu Picchu back to Ollantaytambo. While walking up from the station in Ollantaytambo we saw that some kind of festival was developing on the streets. There were people in rainbow colored costumes and masks dancing on all the roofs and balconies and we could hear music coming in the distance. By the time we had checked into the hostel the parade had made it up to the main square. We had a ring side view to the show ...

Today's the day! Up at 4:00 a.m. we walked out of the hostel to pouring rain! Really??? On with the ponchos again and down to the bus stop where we really were almost the first people in line! But rain?? The buses started leaving at 5:30 on the dot and we were actually on the first one. Amazing. As we started the windy climb up the hill the sky started lightening up. There were quite a few VERY hardy souls that were climbing up the hill instead of taking the bu...

Today's the day we take our train ride! We found the bus to Ollantaytambo and arrived there around noon. Enough time to find some empanadas and other snacks and walk down the hill to the train. The town of Ollantaytambo is really nice and I'm glad that we have planned on staying here a night on the way back to Cusco. More Inca ruins here not to be missed :-) The train. Wow! The Peru Rail train line through the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu is part of the Orient ...

This morning we took a bus to Pisac in the Sacred Valley to visit the market and the ruins there. The weather was still pretty cold and unstable but we took our chances (and our ponchos). Once in town you have to take a taxi up to the ruins because they are about 8 km away and high above the valley. The taxi costs 50 sols return. The views from the top were spectacular. These Incan ruins cover a large area of the mountainside overlooking the Sacred Valley and the...