Peru 4

Who would guess that our flight next day from Arequipa to Cuzco would be at 5:50 AM – necessitating a 3:30 AM. wake-up call? Assigned driver didn’t show by 5:00 a.m. so the hotel called for another for us. There were lots of cabs driving by constantly, but most weren’t big enough to accommodate even Rance’s legs, let alone our luggage so we needed a special one. Since we were late to the airport and the flight was overbooked, it looked like after getting up in the middle of the night we wouldn’t get our flight. However, a couple of volunteers tempted by the airline’s offer of $120 allowed us to be the last passengers to board. We couldn’t sit together and my seat was last row/window seat, but there was no window. Rance had an aisle seat but guy by the window had the shade down so neither of us to date has witnessed the great Andean mountains from the air

Cuzco is a neat town – oriented toward Incan ruins, cathedrals and tourists. We toured a bit in the a.m. on our own and were set up for an organized tour in the afternoon. The tour took in both of the afore-mentioned topics and it was truly interesting, but at the end of 4 hours of being told how great the Incan building stones were, we really had to empathize with a young British girl who said “But, mum, they’re just big rocks!” Right after the tour, relaxing in our room, things started to rock and roll a bit and as we lay on the bed we watched coat hangers start to shake. We had been told that they have about 17 earthquakes a day – some big; most not – but I was concerned enough to walk to the reception area where chandeliers were swaying with gusto. Work at the reception desk was business as usual and no one, including us, were very concerned. We never heard about the devastation in the Pisco/Ico area (just south of Lima) until 1 ½ days later when a young traveler entered our hotel in Aquas Calientes. We now understand Amy’s Nancy Drew effort to track us down and the concern of all four kids to make sure that mom and dad were alright.

Got to sleep in the next morning – until 5:30 a.m. when our driver arrived to take us to the train to Machu Picchu. The train ride is 4 ½ hours – an hour of which is spent with the train going forward, backing up, going forward, backing up, etc. which was, needless to say, a bit curious to us until we realized they had to go up bit by bit, changing tracks to get up out of the valley. The rest was just a spectacular ride. Train stops in Aguas Calientes; passengers squeeze through millions of VERY aggressive vendors (more Incan stuff, but twice the price since we are now near Machu Picchu); and we then catch a bus for another 25 minute ride – again zigzagging up a very steep mountain to reach what can only be described as an AWESOME Incan site! We had an excellent guide who explained about the different areas of the site, the reasonings of the Incans and why MP is still in such good condition. Seems when the Spanish invaded, the Incan people left MP retreating elsewhere in the mountains so the Spanish never found it. After the tour, we walked around a different part of the site – up and down some very challenging terraces; original stone steps, etc. Rance was ever the soldier climbing up; coming back down (frequently backwards) and thinking that night that he is truly looking forward to his double knee replacement surgery in November.