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From Cusco we went to Chivay on 4M tourist bus, with stops, but not too interesting. We did not go to Lake Titicaca as we saw it 12 years earlier from Bolivia. The good thing is that the bus was on time and we could take another bus to Cabanaconde in about an hour. Very crowded and hot local bus, with very colorful local people.

In Cabanaconde, we stayed at Hotel Arum Qurpawasi, excellent, new, inexpensive, with bright and spacious rooms, very clean, hot water, very friendly. We ate at Pachamama – everybody else was watching Peru soccer game and didn’t have time to cook and serve. It was good and friendly, we confirmed information about the trek down to Colca Canyon.

Next day we hiked on our own to Llahuar. We saw many condors from view point (Mirador de Achachihua )  at the start of our trek, most quite far but a few passed close to us. They were flying up between 9 and 10 am, we were there waiting much earlier, but it was worth it. Views were great there as well. The hike was nice, but not as spectacular as we expected, quite steep. The bottom of the canyon was a little disappointing, quite dusty and not that impressive, no good views, dirty Colca river. I guess we were spoiled by magnificent Ausangate trek. Probably it’s better in wet season when it’s more green. We crossed another, much cleaner river (Rio Huaruro) to  Llahuar Lodge which was great. We stayed in round bamboo hut  with rock foundation. We spent couple of hours at their hot springs by the river (Rio Colca). Good vegetarian food.

Colca Canyon, Llahuar

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Next morning we went to a village (Paclla) on the way to Sangalle, we didn’t see anybody there although radios were playing music. We wanted to wait for bus to Cabanaconde which passes around 11-12 to avoid steep hike up, but there was a car passing that took us there earlier. We didn’t go to Cruz del Condor as we already saw many condors at the view point in Cabanacode. After short break we continued to Arequipa on  regular afternoon bus.

We stayed in hostel Bubamara in Arequipa: very nice, big, beautiful room, great huge bathroom, good breakfast on a terrace. We visited Santa Catalina Monastery, which we loved, and Santuario Andinos museum with frozen Juanita, interesting, but we expected the museum to have more artifacts, not only from a few sacrificial sites found in the mountains. We liked Arequipa and could stay there longer. We left on overnight Cruz del Sur bus to Nazca.

We stayed four nights in Cusco, at AirBnB two blocks from Plaza de Armas, excellent, beautiful and spacious apartment, best place we stayed in Peru.

First day was Corpus Christi, we spent long time watching colorful procession. Than we had special traditional Corpus Christi meal chiriuchu at Plaza San Francisco with all the locals, it includes a piece of Guinea pig (cuy), chicken, sausage, corn, pancake, seaweed and fish roe, it represents food from different parts of Peru. We ate all that in great festive atmosphere of the plaza. Then we visited Quricancha – the Inca palace in Cusco and its museum, and the Jesuit church with a great view of the Plaza with more fiesta going on.

Chiriuchu at Plaza San Francisco

Next day, we took taxi to visit Tambomachay, walked to Puca Pucara, flagged a bus down to Quenqo, walked to Sacsaywaman, spent long time there, and then walked down to Cusco. Whole day of visiting different ruins, great day. We also went to Cusco Cathedral. The Cathedral was also very interesting and all the figures from different churches were staying there 8 days after Corpus Christi. One evening we went to dance performance, it was good, but started later than we thought and we were tired of waiting.

Last day in Cusco, we went to the South Valley. We planned to travel on our own, but for sake of time we took a tour and we enjoyed it. We visited beautiful church in Andahuaylillas. We watched llama dance in front of it  by group attending Qoyllur Rit’i festival, fascinating and authentic. We also visited Tipon terraces and water fountains/channels and wonderful and huge Huari (Wari) ruins of Pikillacta. The guide was good and provided interesting explanations without being boring. We would wander more on our own, but this tour was surprisingly good. On the way back, we ordered chicharron and Guinea pig in a town famous for them and had our orders delivered to the bus to eat after we were back in Cusco. Guinea pig in the Corpus Christi dish was better though. Other days we were eating both in tourist places and local (including Chifa, very good tamarind chicken), and most dishes were very tasty. We liked beef heart anticuchos.

We went from Ollantaytambo to Urubamba by collectivo and than by local bus to Pisac, very easy and fast. It was great to travel with locals, kids going to school, mother with a baby, folks going to the market. In Pisac there was a fiesta (Children’s Day), we left luggage in a hotel near the bus stop, had coffee in the main square with views of children performances and then we hiked up to the Pisac ruins. Trail was great, very few people. Pisaca town and main temple ruins were very impressive. We could go further up on alternative path through terraces (main path was closed after a rock slide) to upper ruins, but we chose to walk down on different path through ravine, beautiful and peaceful. Another excellent day, slow touring as we like. We took a collectivo to Cusco, this time mostly with tourists.

Pisac

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We took Inca Rail train from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu at 6:40 am with return at 7 pm, all on time and very good. We bought bus tickets in AC and  bought sandwiches for lunch waiting in line. Another queue to bathroom and to get in to MP. We went directly for our MP Montana trek, got to the trail head/entrance ~9:30. Many more people than we expected. The hike was steep (mostly stairs, Incas really loved them, my knees don’t), but beautiful in cloud forest, wonderful views of MP opened several times. Took us almost 2h up and 1.5 down, we had sandwiches/lunch at the top and spent more than half an hour there. Great views all around and good perspective before inspecting the citadel up close.

Machu Picchu Mountain

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In the afternoon we walked all over the main ruins, without  guide but with  guide book. After 3 pm crowds thinned and it was great. We sat in many places to rest and absorb, we saw several viscachas and llamas, weather was great. Very long and tiring day but magical. With all the hype, we were not disappointed by MP, it was magnificent.