Hotel Sol Plaza Inn Cusco

... in Cusco.<br><br> Day 8: Cusco &#8211; Aguas Calientes &#8211; Machu Picchu &#8211; Aguas Calientes (B)<br><br> Our transfer will pick you up from your hotel at 6:15 a.m. in order to board your train towards Aguas Calientes village. As soon as you arrive in Aguas Calientes at 10:50a.m we will take you to your hotel for the check-in and pick up your box lunch. Immediately you will board a bus to Machu Picchu where you will have a 2 hours guided ...

... oxygen (8840 meters) are either three-quarters mountain yeti, or have completely and totally lost it.<br><br>Cusco &#8211; &#8220;Gringolandia&#8221; or the Jewel of Peru?<br><br>After several more hours of oxygenless-ness and a lemon muffin gone horribly awry, darkness gave way to incredible panoramic views of the Andes, which in turn eventually gave way to Cusco. 23 hours in total, but well worth the trip. The Incas referred to Cusco as &#8220;the center of the world,&#8221 ...

... mass, I head up to a coffee shop for the first real coffee in a long time...it is a funky bohemian kindof place that I have all to myself. So I order a cafe con letche and read one of the local magazines for about an hour. I decide by this time I´d better get moving around or my leg muscles will permanently sieze up from the Inca Trail hike. <br><br>Camera in hand, I decide to walk the steep cobbled streets of the artisan district of Cusco called Sun ...

... br><br>One of the many things I would like to achieve on this trip is to acquire the taste for red wine, well if I can´t do it in S America... I´ve had a very nice glass of Malbec, some Sangria &amp; some vin chaud (or vino caliente as I should now say) this week so it is looking promising. Anyway, enough of me....<br><br>(Helen) - yes, it´s been an interesting first week. Our spanish learning has been slow (!) but hoping we ...

... the pretty narrow streets, trying in vain to dodge the people on the street selling massages!!!! We found the huge market but Kate can´t make it past the door, I think she caught sight of the freshly killed chickens sliced open and ready for sale, the smell is bad!!!!<br><br>After a little more walking we found an English Pub, it was showing the Man U v ...

<br>Well, it's that time again, we're back<br>on the road, this time to South America, which is completely new<br>territory for us. Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina are on the<br>agenda, all Spanish speaking countries which should make things a<br>little easier. Can't wait to mangle that language in four new<br>countries. As for the title of this blog &#8211; our trip just happens to<br>work out to exactly 100 days which I thought fit nicely with a fairly<br>famous book by ...

... The large boulder at the top of the site, even though it had been partially destroyed by the Spanish, still emanated a power from the earth unlike any other place we had visited. It seemed to inspire me to connect with my spirit and imagine all sorts of possibilities. <br><br>At Puka Pukara, I found in real life a place that I had been dreaming about. On the ...

... connecting with the bridge of Nicki´s nose, resulting in much eye-watering. Luckily nothing broken though. It was also Andy and Cynthia´s last night, which was sad, but it was a good night and nice send-off for them.<br><br>"I feel ILLLL" (27 July)<br>Woke up at 1.30pm and rather predictably felt hideous. I was still drunk, and even the hostel´s beautiful showers (hot and high pressure - amazing after Chaska Wasi´s hovel-standard ineptitude) failed to revive me. We went for ...

... from Cusco who was supposed to pick us up at our arrival.<br><br>I telephoned Justin at his office, told him that Mi and I had flown to Cusco and returned back to Lima. He didn't believe me at the beginning until I told him the whole story. <br><br>Well that's it. This was day 1 of my 6 day tour. My greatest adventure will have to begin tomorrow. :( Stay tuned!!<br><br>Thankful for good planes.<br><br>Mo<br><br>

... it couldn't be compared to Machu Picchu. <br><br>The minibus then took us to a remote restaurant just outside Urubamba, a town surrounded by beautiful countryside, where we had our buffet lunch. The food was delicious, but quite expensive when taking local prices into account. There were a quite a few in the group that were not too happy about having to cough up 15 soles each as it was unexpected. Luckily, I had just enough with me to pay for my lunch. It is ...