Our Visit to Peru June 2004

On Saturday June 12, we flew from San Diego to Dallas to Lima, had an early Sunday morning drive through the city to a hotel, and then turned around a few hours later and flew to Cuzco. We left Cuzco and headed for the Sacred Valley; the valley is much lower in altitude allows your body to adjust to the altitude. See our Sacred Valley Pictures

Early Tuesday morning we left the Sacred Valley via Train to travel to Aguas Calientes (aka Machu Picchu Pueblo). In the afternoon we hiked Putucusi to try to get to an overlook to Machu Picchu. See our Agaas Calientes Pictures

Wednesday we spent the day and night at Machu Picchu, including a hike to Intipunku (Sun Gate), watching the sunset over and a nighttime visit to the ruins. We rose early on Thursday to watch the sunrise and then hiked to Waynapicchu. See our Machu Picchu Pictures

Thursday afternoon, we took the train back to Cuzco. We spent Friday touring in and around Cuzco where we were lucky enough to be on a celebration day. See our Cuzco Pictures

On Saturday morning, we flew from Cuzco to Lima and spent our last day visiting Colonial Lima and exploring the Miraflores district. We left Lima after midnight - exactly one week after we had arrived. See our Lima Pictures

We planned this trip with less than a month's notice and relied heavily on our Travel Agent to set things up (thanks Harriet!). We insisted on spending at least one night at the Sanctuary Lodge at Machu Picchu. A condition of the Sanctuary Lodge was that you spend any nights in Cuzco at the Monsatario. While this increased our trip costs by 25%, these 5 star hotels were wonderful. Our transfers and tours were handled by SE Tours in Lima and all of our guides were great.