Saturday, May 18: We took and early morning flight from Lima to Cusco, Peru, staying in another boutique hotel that couldn’t be reached without a two block uphill trudge up the cobblestone steps. Usually, this would not be a problem, but Cusco is over 11,000′ in elevation and took a bit to become acclimated, even with our advantage of being from Colorado. We had an afternoon tour of the old town center to include Iglesia De Santo Domingo, Plaza de Armas and many little streets in Old Town Cusco.

Plaza de Armas – The start of the festival season in Cusco

Typical market lined road

View from Iglesia De Santo Domingo

Architectural play between windows to take advantage of the summer solstice

Roof top terrace at Casa San Blas Boutique Hotel

Another roof top terrace!

The road to our our hotel, which looked like most of the roads around the old town

Evidence of some minor shifting of the walls after 500+ years!

All of the main Incan symbols in gold

12 cuts on this one stone to fit the puzzle of this wall built in the 1400’s

“Incan” bling!

Wednesday & Thursday, May 22 – 23: After two nights and 3 days away in the Sacred Valley, Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu, we returned for two more nights in Cusco. We did our own site seeing on the partial days, and our trusty tour guide and driver took up to the near by archeological sites of Tambomachay, Puccpucara, Quenqo, Sacsayuaman, and Koricancha, each site having a unique purpose.

Pronounced “sexy woman”

Wandering Cusco on our last few days…and then the flight home. An amazing trip!