Hotel Torre Dorada Cusco

Cusco is the gateway to Machu Picchu and indeed a lot of the rest of Peru and we are planning to spend a few weeks here learning Spanish and making a few treks and, of course, to visit Machu Picchu. Stepping off the plane it was nice to be greeted by blue skies and bright sunshine. On the negative side, we, or at least I, immediately notice that Cusco is 3500meters above sea level. We are both a bit short of breath but it is small price to pay for the most amazing views from any airport I hav...

The plan this morning was to wake up and take the first bus up to MP at 5:30 in the morning to see the sunrise, then make sure we were one of the first 400 people to fall off the mountain of Wayna Picchu. Unfortunately, Amy wasnt feeling well this day, so we slept in at the hotel until check out at 10. I can't say I was too disappointed with this as the hike up the sun gate was difficult, I cant imagine what Wayna Picchu would have felt like. Not to mention it was our 2 year anniversary, so I...

Slept in a tad today and went to the dining room to have some breakfast. Pretty much the same breakfast buffet as the other 2 hotels. Which was certainly fine with me. It's breakfast #5 in Peru and I still cant get enough elderberry jam. We followed breakfast with a trip downstairs to talk to Rafael. The safe in our room was locked, and we were looking for recommendations on what to do for the day. Apparently we haven't seen enough ruins yet, so he tells us that we can get a car and a guide a...

We{ve had a nice couple of days in Cuzco trying to get over the jetlag and puffing our way up stairs given the 3300m altitude and lack of oxygen in the air. We happenned across a street parade almost as soon as we first ventured out - lots of colourful costumes, dancing and music. We posed at the famous 12 sided stone just like I did when we were here in 1980 and I was just 11 years old. It{ll probably stay standing for hundreds more years to come. This morning after seeing the Inka museum an...

Welcome to South America Tourist Central - Bienvenidos a Cusco. I paid a few extra dollars for the bus down here from Puno. The journey lasts about 9 hours, but on this particular bus you stop to see a few of the sights on the way (and there are plenty of sights to see). They give you lunch, and serve refreshments on board. I thought it was a bargain, but that extra few quid changed the profile of the average passenger completely. We moved from 70% Backpacker, to 70% Argentinian pensioner at ...

So after my nice long nap I still didnt move from bed until 3 or so in the pm, I took a shower and Chris and I set out to town. The place we are staying (Hotel Torre Dorada) had given us free transportation to the town, which was nice. We ate lunch/dinner (linner shall we call it?), we ate linner at this great cafe/ bar Jack's, i had some great Nachos and Chris had grilled cheese (i think). After linner we walked around the town, got a few gifts for people, we got our passes so that we can go...

We finally arrived in Cusco after our 10 hour bus trip. I don't think I would recommend the bus trip for anyone who needs to get a good nights sleep. The seats were comfortable and all but the roads are very bumpy. Neither one of us got very much sleep so we're feeling really tired. We had a very nice breakfast at our hotel and then we both took a long nap. I had to work for a few hours while Julie slept a little longer. Later we went into San Blas for an early dinner and walked around the pl...

Today we met our new friend, "Dennis", in the plaza and he showed us the local market. It was an exciting kind of place with dead animals hanging around for sale to eat. Ewww. The rest of the market was colorful with people selling fruit and flowers and little trinkets. I bought a few things but mainly I just walked around staring at everything. We ate lunch at The Bagdad Café. The pizza was really good and I can't seem to drink enough coca-cola here. Then we took a cab over to Sacsawaman, wh...

We had an exciting day. It started off as usual; we met our new friend, Dennis, in the plaza and walked over to the bus station. The bus station was not very nice. It was dirty and smelled horrible but the tickets were really cheap (2 soles) and the bus was actually pretty nice. Not bad at all. Julie and I got seats 21 and 22, which sort of worried me but the trip was beautiful and quiet. When we arrived in Pisac we walked around taking in all of the excitement from the festival, and then dec...

Yesterday we went to see Qoricancha, Temple of the Sun, or is it the Church of Santo Domingo? Anyway, it was an incredible place where the original Inca stonework is all that remains of the ancient temple. I read that the floors and walls used to be covered in sheets of solid gold back in the day. It's beautiful now but I think they should restore it to its original splendor. We checked out some of the little shops in San Blas and finally found one of the masks I've been looking for. 50 soles...