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Day 19 at sea was a rest and recovery day. Laura’s medications are proving effective, but she’s still coughing more than she wants. We attending the briefing session for the Machu Picchu 3-day overland excursion. Our group, the Gold version, has about 30 people. Patrick, our concierge, arranged room service from the dining room menu for use to help Laura recover. The normal room service menu is pretty limited. In any case, we went to bed early as we have to meet at 6:30

The plan is we leave by bus from the ship docked at General San Martin (near city of Pisco) and travel 4 hours to the Lima airport. From Lima, we fly to Cusco, Peru, spending two nights in Cusco, returning to Lima by air on the third day where our ship is waiting for us. So 3 days total away from the ship.

Day 20, our first day is all travel, arriving in Cusco in the early evening. The second day is going to Machu Picchu, which consists of a 1.5 hour bus ride from Cusco to the train station in Urubamba, climbing over the mountains, and then down into the Urubamba River valley, know as the Inca Sacred Valley. The train runs along the river, for 2 hours and 45 minutes, ending at the town of Aguas Calientes, gateway to Machu Picchu Sanctuary. A final 30 minute bus ride from the train up to the Sanctuary. All told, it’s about 5 hours to Macchi Picchu from Cusco, and another 5 hours back. We spent nearly 3 hours at the Sanctuary.

The third day is touring around Cusco, until about 2 PM, flying from Cusco to Lima, and a final 30 minute bus ride to the ship.

The rest of today’s blog will cover the first day of this trip, Lima and Cusco.

Our overall tour guide / coordinator was Richard. Each of the two buses to Lima had their own tour guide. Ours was Donny. The drive out from the ship and for the first hour or so was through coastal desert. Traveling North along the Pacific Coast, the Andean Mountains were always visible to the East.

As you approach Lima, population 11 million, little “villages” or Associations ( like our HOAs) pop up, at varying degrees of luxury. The best ones were contemporary style homes, typically all whitewashed. At the lower end, they were homes that looked like stacked containers, with concrete and adobe brick exteriors, always boxed shaped. In all cases the Association was surrounded by a fence or wall. Some going up the hills were squatter homes.

Once we arrived in Lima, traffic became horrible, even on a Saturday morning. The buildings are mostly those container shaped buildings, often with a 2nd, 3rd or even 4th floor being added. There are concrete rebar reenforced pillars every 10-15 feet, with block/brick laid between the support pillars. The roof (soon to be floor of the next floor), are poured concrete. Donny explained the reason for this was no one could get a loan to build a whole house, so they save up enough to build one floor at a time.

We slowly inched towards a waterfront causeway, where traffic moved much better, heading to a restaurant to eat lunch before going to the airport. Lunch was delicious in a restaurant that’s part of a museum.

Our flight to Cusco, scheduled for 15:50, was about an hour late to depart. This delayed our arrival in Cusco until after 6:30PM, arriving in the dark. We didn’t arrive at our hotel until nearly 7PM, tired and hungry, with the impacts of 12,000 feet elevation hitting us as soon as you get off the plane. This would become a major challenge for Laura and I in Cusco, as with both of us still congested, we became very conscious of our breathing, loosing a lot of strength just walking.

The tour group had a cultural presentation planned for us upon arriving at the hotel, which was now delayed until 7:30PM. That meant dinner didn’t start until nearly 9PM. The hotel offered oxygen tanks and masks for any guest needing it, and there were already some using it during the presentation. The presentation itself was very nice, with a band playing Peruvian folk music for several cultural dance teams. At the end, the dance teams grabbed guests in the front rows to dance with them. While we were strategically sitting towards the back, one of the more energetic dancers came down the aisle and grabbed me up to the dance flow. She’s one of the young women in short white skirts. For those that have seen me dance, it was not a pretty sight. She’s turning and twisting me, “running” around the dance floor. I was getting so out of breath. Below are video clips of some of the dance routines, and one from the finale with me in the center, taken by another traveler. See if you can spot me. I’m wearing a blue sweater and sneakers with a white sole.

Our hotel is a 5-star hotel, the Monasterio Hotel, originally built as a Jesuit Monestary, now a hotel. Hey Allison, it reminds me of the hotel in Avignon France we stayed at once. It is a bit spooky, in different ways, like they pipe monk Gregorian chants in the dining room.

By the time we got to the dining room, Laura and I were so tired, we lost our appetite. Besides, they had suggested to us to not over-eat as your digestion is impacted by the high altitude. Too bad, because what little we ate was delicious. We went to our room before desert, as did several others. During dinner, we had a 3-piece musical group with an opera soprano and a tenor singing operas, Peruvian songs, even sole Elvis.

We both slept fleetingly, due to the dry air, and lower oxygen level. But tomorrow we go to Macchi Picchu.