Luna Rumi lodge Urubamba

... the City we left to have lunch with Edgar and the children.  They had written some lovely letters saying how much they had enjoyed their time with him.  He certainly made our time in Cusco and the introduction to the Inca life so interesting and enjoyable for us all.  What a special man, even though he spent much of his time to get Fynn to become a Cusco supporter.

Afternoon spent walking around market  - panpipes, Inca hats and hippy bags.

... a more demanding trek up Mount Machupicchu for a different view (more about that later).

Decided to take the short 30 min walk to the Inca Bridge. The Bridge was closed (probably a good thing), but met some interesting people along the way and got some great shots of me on a rocky ledge!

Still had time for the climb up Mt. Machu Picchu (not to be confused with the city ruins). So Iīm thinking...Iīm in decent shape - this shouldnīt ...

... Mapi ist nur mit dem Zug zu erreichen, oder zu fuss wenn man moechte, moechte man aber nicht, da bin ich mir sicher. Das ist auch der Grund, warum es hier so schoen ruhig ist, es gibt keine Autos oder Mopeds, nur ein paar Busse, die die Besucher hoch zu den Ruinen von Macchu Picchu bringen, und das Polizeiauto.
Die Ruinen konnte ich leider noch nicht besuchen, aber von einem Nachbarberg den ich Gestern bestiegen habe konnte ich schon mal eine Superaussicht auf Mapi geniessen. Die ...

We were picked up at our hostel at 6am and joined the rest of our group on a bus journey to the start of our trek, KM 82. There were 16 of us in total and 2 guides Marcelo & Will. We also had 22 porters who carried the tents, food and everything else except our roll mats and sleeping bags. We stopped to eat breakfast at a small resturant next to the start of the trek and then proceeded to the checkpoint, where ...

... further back, then had a small pitch-black tunnel to the right, but we were too cowardly to go spelunking.
It was another solid hour an a half back up the mountain, which probably contributes to why this trial is less traveled. Back at Machu Picchu, we hung out there for several more hours just walking amongst the ruins. The clouds lifted as the day went on so the views were actually better in the afternoon than they were in the morning. I imagine sunset ...

... walk by walls made of stones that are essentially cubes that the Incas carved hundreds of years ago and think "they can't build walls that are this perfect nowadays - how in the world did the Incas do it back then"?

The market was next and it was just as fun but much less work. All of the local artisans and craftspeople set up booths to sell their wares which mainly consist of alpaca textiles like sweaters, wall hangings, rugs, scarves, hats, gloves, etc ...

In Cusco, I went back to the hotel that I stayed at in the past. I was greated warmly by the night attendant and shown to my room. It was great to be back in cusco, it really feels like a home away from home over there. The next morining, we bought some train tickets (Mae didn't have much time, so we had to take the high road) and went shopping for things we didnīt need. Cusco is a great place to buy if you know where to shop, and we ended up getting some pretty sweet ...

... area, and that attracts some thirsty people. I’m learning when and how to protect my time here. Believe it or not, there are not many people here that are actually here… most of them are somewhere else, trying to find themselves, heal something, fix something. Sometimes it gets overwhelming. Not sure why people think I can fix them… I still don’t know what really drove me out here, besides feeling a need to go. But there has been some pretty great ...

... thin air and made our introductions. The bikes looked immaculate resting on foam mats, the chain rings glistening in the morning sun. Later we found out, among other things he is the Peru distributer of a wax based bike lubricant, which is obviously very effective. We had some issue of payment. We wanted to pay in dollars which in itself was fine but our money was too ratty. Mike explained that Peruvian banks reject even slightly worn dollars. Jess ...

... on a website. When we got back to the hostel the old lady running it wanted to show us her restaurant so we walked there with her assuming that we would just be looking in case we wanted to return and eat another time. When we got there she sat us down and offered us dinner. It was an awkward situation and too difficult to say no so we ate a very expensive and small dinner. It was entertaining though. Her husband was very nice and ...