The first thing we noticed about Cusco is its role as the hub of this part of the Andes. Like Kathmandu in Nepal, Cusco is the airport, railroad and highway hub that serves the outlying areas like Urubamba, Pisac, and Machu Picchu. It’s where the trekkers and tourists start and end their adventures in the […]

Today ranked in the top three of toughest days for physical exertion in our adventures together…the others being the one-day hike to Paliku Camp on Maui and our one-day summit of Mt Whitney. We started at 6:40 am with a train ride from our hotel, west along the Urubamba River, eventually reaching Aguas Calientes, the […]

Today we woke to snow in the mountains after a heavy rainstorm last night. ‘Our’ mountain above our hotel, Chi’qun, not only had fresh snow on the glacier but there was also snow halfway down the nearby peaks. We had an absolutely delicious breakfast at our hotel before walking into the town to catch a taxi […]

We were up early to catch our flight from Lima to Cusco, a change in elevation from just above sea level to 3400 m (11,200 ft). The flight was full of tour groups from China, Japan the US and Canada and we seemed to be the only ones on our own (and the youngest). When […]

We landed last night on our flight from Houston at 10:30, flying in low over a bay that seemed to have hundreds of cargo ships at anchor at the Port of Callao before touching down just as we crossed the coastline. A quick check of Wikipedia showed that Callao was the main port for the […]