After months of planning and years of dreaming, my grandson, Zed, and I left the Austin airport around noon on Monday, July 12th. The flight to Houston was short and we had a couple hours layover before boarding for Lima. The flight to Lima was uneventful except that the sound for my entertainment system did not work . We arrived in Lima about …

Our flight to Cusco was at 9:30 AM so we awoke early and ate a good breakfast and walked back across the street to go through security and board our Lan flight to Cusco. We were met by a representative of Adventure Life who took us to our guide, Herbe. He was to be with us for a couple of days. After we checked into our hotel, Hotel San …

When Herbe came to pick us up there was a parade of protesters(workers) marching in the streets. We had to wait a few minutes before our driver could get the van through the streets. We were going to the Sacred Valley that day. Because we would be going on the train the next day to Aguas Calientes, we left our luggage at the hotel and only took a …

After breakfast, we walked to the train station and boarded for the two hour journey to Aguas Calientes. The Urubamba River ran alongside the railroad tracks and the mountains were on either side of us. It was beautiful scenery the entire trip. We checked into our hotel, El Mapi, which was very nice and then walked across the street to have …

I awoke to the sound of rain at two in the morning. It sounded wonderful against the greenery outside our room, but I was afraid it would ruin our morning on Machu Picchu. I did not sleep much that night. It was still raining at 4:30 and I was starting to bemoan the fact that I had waited about ten years to get here and was not going to be able to …

We had all decided the previous day to hire a driver to take us to Pisac and surrounding areas. Zed and I met Santiago in the plaza by the church . A couple of the members of the other family were not feeling well so it was just Zed, Santiago and myself off for the day. We walked to the market (food etc.) in Cusco where the sights dazzled my …

Our two river guides, Gilber and Eduardo, along with our driver, Jose picked us up about 9 AM at our hotel and drove us for two hours to our starting place on the river. We stopped at a small store in a village where our guides bought snacks and the lady owner unlocked a rest room for us. (In Cusco, everyone is asked to put toilet paper in the …

I slept a little better that night and I got up around 7 am, dressed and went to drink some coca tea and check my email. We were not leaving until noon so I let Zed sleep a little later than usual. He finally came to breakfast . The fruit looked so good, but I did not want to take a chance on getting TD. We still needed a few gifts to take back …

Our evening meal on the flight was not too bad. I don't think Zed ate. This time the sound system on my seat worked and I watched a couple of movies. We landed in Houston about 6:30 AM. We had a three hour layover here so Zed had a meal from Subway and I ate a croissant and drank a latte in the airport. We had to take the train to our terminal …