We had a whirlwind adventure in Cusco, Machu Picchu, and the Sacred Valley. We arrived in Cusco by plane, and spent the first few days exploring the city, getting ready for our big Lares Trek, and exploring the nearby archaeological sites. We were excited to find a delicious french bakery two doors down from our hostel, which we took advantage of every day. We had never seen so many Plazas (squares) so close together in one city before. The city centre was full of old colonial buildings, built on top of old Inca structures (most were replaced by churches). When you climb up the stairs through the bohemian area of San Blas, you get a view of the whole city centre. We counted 16 churches that must have all been within half a square kilometer.

After a few days we were joined by our favorite Torontonian, Dan Beleij-Corrigan, who hung out with us for the remainder of our stay in Peru. We had been saving ourselves for Dan in a way. We spent the next few days in Cusco spending way too much money, buying souvenirs, and eating and drinking everything we've wanted to try in Peru. The highlight of this culinary experiment would have had to have been Cuy, or guinea pig to the North American rodent lovers. Our cuys were served to us with teeth and all, with excellent sides that could fill a sumo wrestler up. We was a great send off to start our trek the next day.

While exploring the Sacred Valley we went to two places: Pisac and Ollantaytambo (oy-ant-ay-TUM-bo). They were both unique in their own ways, but the three of us preferred "Ollanta". Pisac was an excellent place for us to buy all of our alpaca whole souvenirs for everyone, and we are told it's the best place to go if you're looking to "find ourself" with the local medicine. We also tried Chicha, which is an Andean corn beer made with fermented maize, and to our surprise, they also had strawberry flavored chicha. We had to look for the houses that had a broomstick covered in a red plastic bag at their front door to know where to find it. We walked in, and the room of this house was full of Peruvians, all a little bit curious as to why three Canadians walked into their local watering hole. We were a bit suspicious of the bucket of foamy, pink liquid so decided to get a small glass to share. We weer practically laughed out of the building as we stood there in the middle of the room surrounded by these locals that were making fun of Brad and Dan in Quechua for only taking a small glass.

Ollantaytambo, admittedly one of the most touristy towns in the Sacred Valley, had a character and a relaxed vibe to it that we just didn't get in Pisac. The buildings were beautiful and so was the backdrop. The fort there was one of the more impressive archaeological sites we went to. It was where the last stand of the Incan empire took place against the Spanish before they were finally conquered. We spent the day exploring the down, and going from cafe to patio hanging out and enjoying the scenery.

The Lares Trek

This Sacred Valley trek that would finish with our entrance into Machu Picchu was arguably better than the famous ruins themselves. It is one of the less popular routes through the Sacred Valley, so our group (along with three Americans and staff) were completely alone on this serene trail. We lived like kings for three days. There is so much competition between companies for these treks that they have gotten very luxurious. We had a chef accompany us who cooked all of our meals, and they were amazing. When we arrived at camp every night our tents were already set up, and when we woke up in the morning it was from one of the horsemen greeting us with a coca tea. We never felt so spoiled. 

We spent our first night at 4200m in the hills of the valley, and when we woke up the next morning, there was an incredible fog rolling in through the valley so that it looked like we were above the clouds. Along the trail we passed by a number of llama herders which was a welcomed visit. We decided to name our team The Black Llamas, because the Incans considered black ones sacred, and would only sacrifice them. Because we were so speedy, we ended up finishing our trek early, and arriving at the Lares hot springs to finish our trek on the second night. The hot springs were nestled in a small valley where all the local people would come back a relaxing bath. As you can imagine, we really appreciated jumping into a scorching hot natural spring after two days of climbing mountains.

From the hot springs we took a van back to Ollantaytambo, then got on a train to Machu Picchu town, better known as Aguas Calientes for a night in a hotel before going to the ruins the next morning. The three of us, plus our new American friend Katie went for some celebratory cocktails before an early bed time.

Machu Picchu

5am wake up to get to Macchu Picchu for 6:30. When we arrived there was a thick fog over the entire ancient city, so all we could see were the small buildings immediately in front of us. It added to the mystery of the whole experience. After a three hour tour with our guide, Oliver, we were left to explore the city just in time for the skies to clear up. We were shocked how big Machu Picchu was. We explored all the different temples, used for different rituals, and did the hour long hike up to the sun gate, where the Incans would first walk through to enter the city. It is believed that on the solstices, the sun gate lined up perfectly with the Sun Temple, the main altar in Machu Picchu.

After a long day we had to take a bus, followed by a train, followed by another bus back to Cusco, where we went for some celebratory pizza and beer to finish off our Sacred Valley adventure.