Travels WithJohn and Janice
Peru

South America

Peru

4 adventures documented

All Stories

The first view down at Machu PicchuPeru
5 min read2018

Dateline February 12, 2018, Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu, top of so many bucket lists, was ours at last. We rode the glass-roofed Vistadome up the Urubamba, climbed the breathless steps at 8,000 feet, and got that first look down at the lost city that no photograph can match. With Edgar we walked it until evening, heard how Hiram Bingham was led to it in 1911, eyed the peaks we'd have climbed twenty years younger, and rode back to Cusco with costumed dancers working the train. One of the great days of our lives.

#Machu Picchu#Inca#Hiram Bingham
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The circular terraces of MorayPeru
4 min read2018

Dateline February 10, 2018, Into the Sacred Valley

The second day took us into the Sacred Valley itself, the green corridor the Urubamba River carves between the Andes, which the Inca saw mirrored in the Milky Way overhead. We climbed breathless to the temple above Ollantaytambo, marveled at Moray, the Inca crop laboratory of circular terraces, ate guinea pig cooked in the ground, and watched the weavers of Chinchero turn berries and leaves into color. Edgar saw us through it all, and Machu Picchu waited for morning.

#Sacred Valley#Ollantaytambo#Moray
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John with a baby llama at PisacPeru
5 min read2018

Dateline February 9, 2018, Cusco and the Inca World

Our Peru tour was a group affair, four busloads sorted out in Cusco, and ours became a happy little 'Mob' for days. With our guide Edgar we took in the Inca world: stonework so fine it needs no mortar, the Sun temple the Spanish buried under a convent, the Cathedral's Last Supper set over a plate of guinea pig, the great fortress of Sacsayhuaman, and the children of Pisac Market with their baby llamas, one of which John nearly brought home for the grandchildren.

#Cusco#Inca#Koricancha
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Steve, Marilyn, and John at the start of the tripPeru
5 min read2018

Dateline February 8, 2018, Lima, Peru

A bucket-list trip to South America began in Lima, with Janice's brother Steve and his wife Marilyn along for the whole adventure: a land tour of Peru's Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, then a cruise around Cape Horn to the Falklands and Buenos Aires, and finally Iguazu Falls. Our first day downtown brought the changing of the guard, a wonderful free-tour guide named Alejandro, the square where Peru declared independence, a bar with a heart, the unloved Pizarro statue, and a Pisco Sour or two.

#Lima#Plaza Mayor#Pizarro
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