There were twenty-four of us that continued on to Peru from the Galapagos Islands, with planned excursions for 7 days to the Inca ruins around Cuzco and Machu Picchu. (Click here to learn about our stay in the Galapagos). We left the Galapagos on November 18 and flew back to Guayaquil, Ecuador, with a connecting flight to Lima, Peru. Unfortunately we had a 3 hour delay because the plane that was supposed to take us to Lima hit heavy turbulence on the way in to Guayaquil. We knew something was up when we saw people dressed in haz-mat outfits and medics with stretchers approaching the plane as it landed. Seems that several were injured and it took some time to clean up the plane before we could board. Our Linblad representative and tour leader for the week, Aqui, was still waiting for us at the Lima airport, collected our luggage and got us on buses for the ride to the Miraflores Park Hotel. We finally got to the hotel after midnight and to bed after 2am.

Then it was an early wake-up at 5:45am for a quick breakfast and the bus back to the Lima airport for our flight to Cusco. Wouldn't you know, the plane was again delayed - this time due to bad weather in Cusco. Barbara (and many others) tried to catch up on a little shut eye while waiting. Fred made friends with the pretty flight attendants.Flying into Cusco was a little scary. The city is located at over 11,000 ft elevation and is nestled among some rugged snowcapped glacial peaks. We were glad the weather had cleared somewhat before we tried to land.

Our tour of Peru included a two night stay in Urubamba in the Sacred Valley. While there we visited ruins in Pisac and Ollantaytombo and had lunch at a private family hacienda with a large collection of colonial and Inca art. Then we took a train to Machu Picchu where we stayed overnight at the Sanctuary Lodge so we could visit the ruins at sunrise. We stayed two nights in the city of Cuzco, the oldest city in America. Our lodging was the beautiful Montasterio Hotel which was once a Franciscan Monestary. We had a bus tour of the city and visited the very ornate and interesting Cathedral. Then it was back to Lima for a tour of the city and a stop at a museum housing a huge collection of pre-Columbian art.

We were divided into two groups of twelve for our tour of Peru, with a separate guide and bus for each group. That meant we could spread out on the bus and each have a window seat, a very nice arrangement. It also meant our group for hiking the ruins was a nice, small size. The bus was well- equipped with bottles of water for our hikes, hard candies and hand wipes.

To view descriptions of each day of our trip through Peru, click on Peru Journals. The descriptions include a few pictures from that area. To view additional photos from each area, click on Photos. To view a full size photo of any picture, click on the picture. The Peru Map page includes a map of the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu.

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