We had an appreciated day of R&R. I guess we are not 20 anymore. Our legs were very tired from that past two days, so we did lots of walking - just no steps. Even stepping on and off a curb seemed like work. We did get in about 4 hours of walking around Cusco. Well actually 3 walking and about an hour off for beer at a restaurant overlooking a park. Cusco is a surprisingly vibrant and active city. The downtown area has lots of shops and restaurants. We will p...

The day started with getting picked up at the hotel at 6:45 AM for a transfer to the train station. The train ride from the Sacred Valley took about an hour an a half and the views were spectacular. On the right were snow capped Andes peaks and on the left was the Sacred R (also called the Urubamba) River Valley. We found out that it eventually flows into the Amazon. From the train station in the town of Machu Picchu, we then took a 25 minute bus ride up to the r...

After a buffet breakfast at the hotel, we were picked up at around 8:00 for a full day tour of the Sacred Valley. We were joined by two other couples who were staying at different hotels. Our 1st visit was to Urpi, a textile center where they have preserved traditional Andean weaving techniques. We saw some weaving and then went on to our next stop which was Cinchero, It is an important Incan archaeological site at about 11,000 feet in elevation. We toured the ar...

The driver, Louis, who drove us from the Lima airport drove us back today. The traffic here is incredible. People create their own lanes and cut others off all the time. The amazing thing is that we have not seen a single accident or even a dent in a car. Louis took us into the airport, helped us check in and walked us all the way to security - great service. It was only about an hour flight to Cuzco. We were greeted as we were waiting for our bags. We went to th...

Lima has been a pleasant surprise. It is a city of over 10 million - the traffic is incredible and this is their vacation season. We were able to sleep in to about 9:00 so we did get about 6 hours sleep. We might have slept longer but the din from the construction just next door did get in the way. We ate a large buffet breakfast (included) and then went for a walk. We are in the Miraflores district which is their tourist/shopping area an very near the coast. We ...