Feb 11 Overland to Cusco Peru

We're off the ship for three days, two nights, to visit Machu Picchu.  Before we go, there's Oscar Night on ship.  Apparently a group of people gathered in the lounge to eat snacks and watch the ceremony.  I couldn't possibly sit through it without fast forward.

 And Chef Mario had a big fish fry out on the open deck of the Terrace Cafe.  Manta is the Tuna Capital of the world, and Mario had taken advantage, bringing back several hundred pounds of tuna to serve fresh.

 We depart the ship in Salaverry Peru. Most of Peru is desert, as we would observe during a 5 hour bus trip.  Salaverry was an early morning introduction to the bleakness of the Peruvian desert.

 We took buses to Trujillo airport, then a LATAM flight to Lima, connecting to a flight to Cusco.  Oceania had arranged the tour through AKORN, a tour management company.  They are top-notch, providing constant shepherding through the buses and airport terminals.  They briefed each section of the trip ahead of time, and made sure you followed the directions.  It worked extremely well.

Arriving in Cusco we separated into five groups of about a dozen each to fit into the smaller buses used in the narrow streets of Cusco.  Each bus had its own guide, who stayed with us for the remaining three days in Cusco, Machu Picchu and back to Cusco.  Our first stop on a brief tour of Cusco was the Koricancha Temple.  As is true in other locations in Peru, the Spanish built something on top of an Incan Temple so the one true God could be worshiped correctly.

 Our guide Gilmar believed himself to be an Incan descendant and thoroughly praised their architecture and building. Until an earthquake in the 1950s this Incan construction had been hidden by the Spanish church built atop it.  All of these blocks were hand fitted without benefit of metal tools or mortar between the blocks.

 The Spanish building

 Some gold captured by the Spanish that did not get transferred back to Spain.

 View from the temple

 Next we drove to the town square to tour the Cusco Cathedral.  As you stood on the in the square you could see about 7 Spanish churches rising above the regular buildings -- there were that many Inca sites to cover.  This is the Jesuit Church on the square.

 And this is the cathedral.  We toured inside this church, but were not allowed to take pictures.

 Statue in the middle of the square

 Although we suffered no ill effects, we did notice the altitude.  We walked slowly and carefully and took lots of breaks.  The highest we reached during the trip was 12,400 feet crossing from Cusco into the Sacred Valley.  We spent both nights at a hotel at 9600', and Machu Picchu was around 8500'.  Some people, much younger than us, were sprinting up the steps at various attractions.  We watched them go by, took a deep breath, and continued going up slowly.

 We left Cusco for dinner, driving up above the city.

 Many houses are decorated with the symbol of two bulls -- a reference to Inca mythology that the Spanish Church was willing to accept.

 Dinner was at Hacienda Sarapampa located at the end of a long dirt road. Surrounded by mountains, it was scenic.

 Dinner was all locally sourced and native foods.  I'm not a foodie so I won't describe the meal in detail.  It was "interesting". 

 There was a show, the first act featuring a Peruvian Paso horse.  The horse has a funny gait that doesn't bounce the rider about, but allows him to glide along.  To me the horse's front legs appeared to be broken as he strode along, moving unnaturally.  But that's the way the horse works.

 There were other dances, about one for every meal course.  The finale involved mythology and costumes.  All of them involved dim lighting in a very dark setting.

We departed for the hotel, arriving at the Tambo del Inka Resort at 9pm, with a 6:15 wake up call.  We didn't explore, we went straight to bed.  Tomorrow Machu Picchu!