Kyle M

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Lima, Cuzco, Machu Picchu Peru

Our trip to Peru was eventful to say the least. We started off with a flight from Dulles to Bogota, then onward to Lima. Naturally, our flight was late, we would have missed our connection, but we got on a flight to El Salvador with a short layover. No problem overall, but we did get into Lima much later than expected. Our hotel sent a taxi for us, and away we went. 

We had two nights in Lima, then an early flight into Cuzco. We ate at Central which is a highly rated restaurant, and it was amazing. We strolled the cliffs or whatever you may call them overlooking the ocean. 

Yashica 124--Kodak Ektar--Lima, Peru

Yashica 124--Kodak Ektar--Lima, Peru

Yashica 124--Kodak Ektar--Lima, Peru

After our brief time in Lima, we flew to Cuzco, with a slight mishap, we missed our original flight and had to catch the last one of the day to get there in time to pay for our excursion to Choquequirao, which we did! I'll do a blog post of the whole hike as it was a 6 day trip with hiking and is a lot more involved than fitting it into this blog post. 

After our hike, we took a mini-bus to Ollantaytambo, which is where we caught the train up to Aguas Caliente; this is the jumping off point for Machu Picchu. The train ride was an hour or so, after which we ate, walked around, then set-off to our hotel (around midnight) to try to get enough sleep to get up to Machu Picchu in time for the amazing sunrise. Two things: X-men was on, so going to sleep before 3am was impossible, second, we made it up to Machu Picchu, which was about an hour and a half hike, by 6am, only for it to be overcast.  

Machu Picchu was amazing, breathtaking, well worth it, and so on. I would recommend anyone and everyone go. If you cannot hike, you can take a bus the entire way up to the top, there were many people there who looked like they were dressed for a night of clubbing, not hiking.  So, go. 

Yashica 124--Fuji Provia--Machu Picchu, Peru

GF670--Fuji Provia--Ollyantatambo, Peru

Gf670--Fuji Provia--Aguas Caliente, Peru

 

 

 

We took a glass dome train back to Ollyantatambo, then took a cab back to Cuzco, and had the night. I left my camera bag in a taxi and freaked out, freaked out real damn good. The driver was able to get back to our hotel within fifteen minutes and everything was fine, but I still freaked out. We stayed that night in a hotel, we enjoyed the night there, walked around and such, then headed to the airport in the morning. We had a late flight, thanks Avianca! As a matter of fact, all of our flights were late. 

We had a 9 hour or so layover in San Salvador, El Salvador, but because our late flight, we only had a few hours, so our booked tour was cut way short. We spent a few hours on the beach with our guide, had ceviche, then went back to the airport. The whole trip was wonderful. 

Yashica 124--Fuji Provia 100f--Costa Del Sol, El Salvador

Yashica 124--Fuji Provia 100f--Costa Del Sol, El Salvador

Go to Peru. Go to El Salvador. Book a tour with Salvadorean Tours. Book a tour with Bioandean. They are both amazing companies that provided us with amazing tours and priced very reasonably.