MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015 - LIMA, CUSCO & SACRED VALLEY

After breakfast at the hotel, we boarded our large bus to return to the Lima airport for a short flight (1 hour 20 minute) to Cusco, Peru, the capital of the Inca Empire (11,000 feet above sea level).  Once we had all retrieved our luggage, we proceeded to our "bus for the week" and met our driver and our guide, Evie.  Below, we stopped in the mountains outside of Cusco for this picture time.

Then proceeded on to Pisac, a picturesque Andean village with a wonderful market.  Here, one of our group is trying for size a poncho similar to the one worn by Clint Eastwood in his "Spaghetti Western" movies.

There he is!  Doesn't it make you think of one of those movies?

From Pisac, we continued on to Ollantaytambo (3,000 feet above sea leave) located at the foot of spectacular Inca ruins which protected the strategic entrance to the lower Urubamba Valley, also known as the Sacred Valley.  

The temple area is at the top of a series of steep terraces which helped provide excellent defenses.  Stone used for these buildings was brought from a quarry high up on the opposite side of the Urubamba River, an incredible feat involving the efforts of thousands of workers.  Below, the mostly younger 2/3 of our group of 21 who were sitting nearer the front of the bus,  along with our guide, Evie, began the climb of these steep terraces.  The other 1/3 of us who it appeared were unaware of what was happening, waited for the climbers to make the climb and return.  It was a very disappointing start with this guide, Evie.

We waited around, finding things to occupy our time and grumbled.  Once we were all back on the bus we continued to our hotel, Casa Andina Private Collection Sacred Valley where we had dinner and stayed the night.  The hotel was located on a mountain with the rooms a few stories above the lobby.  An outside, poorly-lighted, path that included two long ramps led to the rooms.  Inside the rooms were okay and a "sunroom" could have been enjoyed in warmer times.  It was simply too cold to think about the unheated sunroom.

Earlier in this blog, on the day before we made the trip to the lodge on the Amazon River I complained about this travel company, Friendly Planet, telling us about 10 days prior to departure that we would need to "pack an overnight bag for the next two days and leave our larger bag on the bus".  Well, this was again the requirement.  This time, the overnight bag was for us to take on the train to Machu Picchu on the following day.

During our stay at this hotel, I got the chance to have a chat with our guide, Evie.  I expressed how disappointed we were with the incident when we felt excluded at Ollantaytambo and told her we simply were not aware that the climb was planned.  She agreed that for the rest of the week she would make an extra effort to be certain that everyone on the bus was informed of the plans and opportunities for excursions.