Category: South America

We stayed 3 nights in Ollantaytambo, with day trip to Machu Picchu from there. We stayed in El Bosque hostel, which was nice, clean, and convenient, with good breakfast, very nice owners, but our room was on ground level and quite dark, cold and noisy from the street.

We visited Ollantaytambo ruins, which we loved, and we hiked up to Intihuana from there, very nice short hike with excellent views. In the afternoon we hiked to the Granaries on the valley slope opposite the main ruins and  ventured somehow way up through more ruins and rocks. It rained a little bit when we were there, the only rain during entire trip (and it was very light rain). Wonderful day.

We flew from Chicago to Lima (via Atlanta) – arrived very late with departure to Cusco early next morning. We stayed overnight in AirBnB near airport (jest a few hours of sleep), with pick-up and ride back to the airport. Great decision. The place was quite old, but clean and very convenient, and owners super nice and helpful.

We had private  tour from Cusco airport to Ollantaytambo, visiting Chinchero (it was Sunday), Moray and Maras Salinas on the way  arranged with Taxidatum. The driver was waiting for us at the airport, everything was good and on time, car was good. But it wasn’t a the best choice:  we were tired, elevation was high, I had bad headache and we did not have enough time in Chinchero market (OK in church and terraces) and in Salinas, even though we skipped lunch in favor of more touring time. We loved all three sites, Chinchero, Moray and the Salinas, we just wished to have more time. We tend to visit very slowly, not just to have a look and take a few pictures. We would also love to hike through Salinas down to the river.