Peru = awesome

Great hotel with a nice spa. After a 7 hour overnight delay with LAN airlines it was nice to just walk across the street from the airport to the hotel and chill for the day

Marco was our guide for the day and he was excellent. We did a walking tour of cusco/saqsaywama park. He really values his work and helped us to see what its REALLY like in Cusco. Of course we did all the good tourist things but also we got to check out the local market and eat at local restuarants with someone who himself is a local and has alot …

Today we [my friend and I] took a trip with Mayuc tours down to a river in the Sacred valley for level 3+ rafting. Marco introduced us to our river guide so we'd feel comfortable and the rafting itself was great, the guide Jaun Carlos was super friendly and really helpful for my friend who cant swim! The group we went with however was really big - …

Today we met Vidal and our driver Manuel. The guys really wanted to show us what local life was like so we met local farmers and weavers in small towns like Chinceros. Manuel had prepared us lunch at his home - and we ate in the courtyard of an old church. It was beautiful and there was so much attention to detail I couldnt believe it. Actually …

Manuel, a super driver and sweet guy, brought us [Vidal, my friend and I] to Ollentaytamba [sp?]. The inn was perfectly located so that when we woke up we could see the sun shining through mountains and shedding light through the stones at the second of MANY Incan ruins we would see. We met our porters 6 guys who were gentlemen from the first …

At this point I cant tell what happened on which day because time sort of stopped while we were hiking. We werent fast hikers by any means but Vidal was crazily patient. never said anything negative or critical even when we stopped just to breathe [altitude getting harder to bear] about every 20 minutes. In fact at a certain point he just carried …

I dont know if this was exactly the right day or time but sequentially it's accurate. We walked up and down through comepletely desolate mountainrange. through most of the trip there were tears in my eyes for all the beauty I had to take in. Vidal totally enhanced our appreciation of the place- he was able to just be quiet, sort of meditative, …

We camped our last night of freezing cold weather and started descending. we reached a maximum height of 14650 feet and probably I packed wrong for the bedtime weather. Eventhough i had a tshirt, thermal shirt, sweatshirt, leggings, socks and pajama pants i still shivered for at least 40 minutes before falling asleep. Next time Ill bring better …

I am sure this is not the right day but in any case... Macchu Piccu, the Pies De Resistance, was beautiful. Any of the millions of Inca ruins we had seen up until then seemed a little feeble to be honest. It was amuch better insight into the lives, culture and wisdom of the Incan people. Vidal knew about every corner of the ruin and had an endless …