Machu Picchu

Land Tour

March, 2022

A quick note:  In this part of the report, you may notice that the captions for each photo have a number prefix.  This is the sequential number I generate and assign to all the photos from a trip.  Normally, I do not show these numbers, but if someone wants a copy of a photo (in high resolution) this number will provide a quick/easy way to identify the specific photo.

Monday, March 14:  Quito to Lima

Because of the change in air schedules, we were at the EB hotel, close to the Quito airport, but close to nothing else, with nothing scheduled to do.   The original itinerary had us in Lima today, for a tour of the city, but that would not happen.  I had tried to find some tour or other activity to participate in for the day, but nothing popped up.  The Celebrity people said to check with the hotel concierge for ideas, but she had nothing and said to check with the people at the front desk.  They had nothing either and said to check with Celebrity.  We gave up on that and decided to try to entertain ourselves.

Our first activity was a walk down the road next to the hotel.  There were some small shops and some fields planted in fruits and vegetables.  We were challenged to identify some of the plants.  We walked probably 1.5 miles down the road, then back again.  Then we tried out the hotel gym, using the weights and then the aerobic equipment.  However, since Quito has an altitude of over 9,000 ft., that did not last very long.

Lunch at the hotel restaurant was included.  We noticed pizza on the menu and, since we had not had any pizza on our cruise, decided that would be a good choice.  The pizza was excellent thin crispy (northern Italian style) pizza: probably the best pizza we have had since we were in Italy last September.

Four o’clock, the time to meet the bus to take us back to the airport, finally rolled around.  Once at the airport, the check-in line was rather long, but we finally got through that, security, and passport control and found the VIP lounge where we had passes.  The flight left about 7:00 PM and was about two hours long, so we arrived at the Lima airport at 9:00. 

By the time we got through immigration/customs and got our luggage, it was almost 10:00.  We had some problems finding Rocia, our Celebrity guide for Peru, but finally got together and loaded on the bus to the Westin Hotel, a 45-minute ride from the airport. 

2410  View from our room at the Westin in Lima

By the time we got checked in and organized, we got to bed about midnight, with a wake-up alarm set for 6:00 AM for the 45-minute ride back to the airport.  There were two hotels right at the airport so we wondered, somewhat vocally, why we had wasted the hour and a half go to and from the Westin.  It was a very nice hotel, but we would have rather had another hour and half of sleep.  I later figured out the reason (I think), but more about that later.

Tuesday, March 15: Lima – Cusco - Urubamba

This morning we got up at 6:00 so we could grab a quick breakfast, be ready to board the bus at 6:50, and head to the Lima airport.  Our one-hour flight to Cusco would be a domestic flight so there was not as much “paperwork” and inspecting to be done.  The flight left about 9:50 and I had a nice view of Lima as we climbed out toward Cusco.

2425 Part of the Pacific coast of Lima.

As a pilot, I found the approach into Cusco rather interesting as the plane has to fly down a valley with mountains relatively close on both sides.  I was thankful for modern navigational facilities.

2445 This was not a telephoto shot: the mountains are that close.

Then, you land at an airport seemingly in the middle of town.  (Turns out that a new airport is being built about 15 miles outside of town.)  The geography of the area is such that most airplanes land in one direction and take off in the other to avoid high mountains.  We grabbed our luggage and were quickly on the way in our tour-bus.  We met up with our local guide, Edgar, who would be with us through all activities in Peru.  Rocia also was with us all the time and they sometimes shared guide duties.

2455 It was nice to feel welcome on our arrival in Cusco.

We drove through Cusco, heading for the roads to take us to the Sacred Valley.

2460  For now, we were just passing through Cusco.

It was almost two hours to get to the southern part of the Sacred Valley where we stopped at a friendly hotel and restaurant for a “biology break” and to admire the view.

2475 Our first view of the Sacred Valley

I’m not sure why the Inca named this the “Sacred Valley”, but I think it must have had something to do with how amazingly fertile the valley is.  I think you could grow anything there.  Although the elevation is around 8000 feet, it never gets cold enough to freeze, so warm weather plants can be grown.  But, at 8000 feet, it never gets very hot and the sun shines a lot.  The valley floor is essentially a flood plain of the Urabamba river, which was very close to flood stage while we were there.  The soil is rich and seemed very loamy, perfect for farming. 

2485 The valley floor and even some hillsides were covered with green fields.

One of the main crops was corn, but different from our usual corn: this corn had large ears and large kernels, but was still sweet.  Peru claims to have 3000 different varieties of potato, and 100 of them are normally grown in the valley.  Citrus trees were common, although not in large groves.

2505  Our “We really were at the Sacred Valley” photo. 

We rode up the valley, continually amazed at both the beautiful landscape and the variety of crops being grown.  Our lunch today was at a Hacienda in the valley, but some distance off the main road.  The buildings were beautiful and very well maintained with colorful gardens.  The meal was very good with the only problem being the time: it was 3:00 by the time we sat down to eat.

2535 Large lunch at the Hacienda

2540 Part of the gardens overlooking the Sacred Valley.

There was even a small museum of Spanish paintings and Inca artifacts. 

 2570 One of three rooms of the museum

We climbed back into the bus and a short ride delivered us to our hotel, the “Tambo Del Inka” in the town of Urabama.  (Yes, the same name as the river that flows through it.)

2650 The Tambo Del Inka Hotel Resort in a beautiful setting

After checking in, it was only about 5:00 and Susan and I had not gotten much exercise this day, so we decided to take a walk.  There was a town square about a mile from the hotel so we headed in that direction.  It was a very nice square with a cathedral on one side and interesting looking trees and plants in the middle. 

2610  Looking across the square at the church

Practically everyone in the square were local people and seemed very friendly.  On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a small wine store and bought a bottle of Peruvian wine and a corkscrew.

We had eaten so much and so late that we really were not hungry but thought that we should eat something or we would regret it before morning.  Besides, dinner was included so we had to see what they offered!

2620 The outside of the hotel restaurant.

We ordered a relatively light meal, but still ended up eating too much.  Then we relaxed for a while in our very nice room and finally called it a day. 

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