Peace Among the Peaks
Peru been on my travel hit list for nearly a decade. I’ve even planned this adventure twice before but it never was fully executed. This summer over drinks with my Strive girlfriends, the topic of future trips was started and my friend Sharmila was heading to Machu Picchu on a girls trip so I couldn’t help myself to ask if I could join them! And through pure luck and kindness of friends I was booked to Peru!!
Anywhere in the world worth visiting is usually hard to get to. Machu Picchu is one of them! Over 5 nights and constant moving around on planes, trains, automobiles and on foot, we covered hundreds of miles across Peru.
Our itinerary was a quick 5 night voyage across peru with the highlight being a day at Macchu Picchu.
LIMA
We landed in Lima in time for bed and woke to rain unfortunately so we didn’t get to see much of the city of 13 million. What we learned was there are 47 districts and 47 mayors which to me sounds chaotic.
The Sacred Valley of the Incas
Another 1hr flight to Cusco and 3hr drive we got to the Sacred Valley. We stopped to see a llama farm and see locally made textiles. We didn’t realize we’d see llamas everywhere on this trip otherwise it was something in hindsight we should have skipped. It was dark before we arrived to a gorgeous Belmond property next to the Inca Trail and a flowing river. We had a lovely dinner and a bottle of wine before retiring for the night.
Machu Picchu
Ride and Shine for an early departure to the train station for a magical Belmond Hiram Bingham train ride to Machu Picchu! The train was a first highlight of the trip with brunch, live music, an open bar that served us multiple espresso martinis and fun caboose photo sessions!
Upon arrival, We hopped in line for the bus to take us to the gates of our destination! If you’re scared of heights this bus ride on switchbacks up the steep mountain side would not have been enjoyable. For me, the views of steep Andes mountains was lovely!
We’ve arrived!!! Machu Picchu was beautiful and interesting nestled within the mountains. Learning about the Incas and how they created this city environment was enlightening. From the architecture to creating a system to monitor the time of year with a sun dial type system was fascinating. The residential and agricultural sides were separated by the fault line. Was that by accident or did the Incas know!?
The second day in the area we hiked to the Sun Gate which overlooked Machu Picchu from higher up. Our original Inca trail path was shared by llama, ha!
The second day in the area we hiked to the Sun Gate, between two mountains it was basically the gate to the Inca city. To get to the gate we hiked original inca trail shared with llama.
After the hike we continued on via bus, train and van towards Cusco. First, we stopped at a salt mine where epson, pink salt and white table salt were mined by hand.
Cusco
Finally we arrived to Cusco, the oldest city in South America where Incas lived and today is home to 500,000. It’s a bustling city with Inca ruins surrounding it. We enjoyed our last two evenings here and final meals. The final day we rearranged our itinerary to stay in the city and see some ruins around Cusco.
What made this trip even more special is it was my first adventure and hiking trip since my back surgery and I am ecstatic to report my back felt amazing! Not a single back ache! My feet are now the issue (hopefully mid term) with what is believed to be plantar fasciitis, but I was able to manage and trek miles around the historic sites. WIN!
