My wife and I recently returned from a fantastic 10-day trip to Peru that featured the 4-day Inca Trail trek into the famous Inca ruins, Machu Picchu. It was trip that we planned for almost 9 months, as the permits for the trail are limited to only 500 per day. It is winter in Peru, with the benefit that now is the dry season and offers some of the best weather conditions for the trek.
After a flight down to Dallas and then another 7-hour flight down to Peru, we landed at the Lima airport at about 2am, still fortunately in the same time zone as Minnesota. After grabbing our luggage, we took a 30-second walk across the street to the airport hotel (expensive, but a great location) and were in bed by 3am. Following five hours of sleep, we got a hot shower and a change of clothes before breakfast at the hotel and then walked back to the airport for our late morning 1.5-hour flight to Cusco.
The 'winter' weather upon arrival in the high altitude mountain city of Cusco (over 11,000 feet above sea level) was absolutely beautiful - bright sun and temps in the 60's. We took a taxi to the hotel, check in and dropped our bags off. To avoid taking a nap after the long trip, we walked several blocks up to the city center, the Plaza de Armas, to stretch our legs and get some lunch. After a tasty meal that included alpaca, quinoa and yellow potatoes (tastes like beef, but leaner), we enjoyed the festive atmosphere of live music and lots of people - Peru was celebrating its national independence day. We then saw some more of the city center and then returned to the hotel in the late afternoon for a rest (the altitude left us a bit out of breath), but went out again for a very nice dinner in the evening and went to bed early, eager to start the next day with a private 1/2-day tour of Cusco and the surrounding Inca ruins.
Up next: An interesting tour around Cusco and we meet the other members of our trekking group (none of them from the US, but all of them English speakers).
