Here we are in fabulous Peru! We began our hiking trip with Country Walkers and our wonderful guide, Juan Carlos Yanez. We walked around the central plaza of Cuzco, listened to stories of its history and walked to the native market where we viewed many of the exotic foods of Peru. We then drove to Sacsayhuaman, a wonderful ceremonial site on the outskirts of Cuzco. The stones used for its construction weighed as much as 200 tons! On subsequent days, we hiked in and around the Urubamba ( the Sacred Valley) where we followed Guido, our Inca flutist down the mountain trail, then on to Pisac and Ollantaytambo, passing indigenous villages, potatoes drying in the fields, llamas and other wildlife and livestock.
The magnificent culmination of the trip was hiking the Inca Trail. On this trail, on the way to Machu Picchu, we passed and explored the Inca pueblo of Winay Winah. In the afternoon we passed through the Intipunku, the Inca Sun Gate. Down below us lay Machu Picchu. What an unbelievable sight! We spent two nights at Machu Picchu which allowed us to get up at the break of dawn the next day to see the sun rise over the sacred village on June 17th, almost the time of the winter solstice when the sun comes through a notch in the mountain to strike a sacred monument. We ended our journey with a surprise 2nd visit to Sacsayhuaman, at night under the gaze of the Southern Cross, where we, once again, were honored to hear Guido piping his flute along the high ridge of the ruin. What an unbelievable ending for a most amazing and unforgetable trip to Peru!
