Cusco, Peru

Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus

Back when we were in Costa Rica we realized we didn't book our Machu Picchu trip. Being two weeks out from our ideal time and it being high season there wasn't much of a selection of tours. For some reason we were convinced that the only way you could see Machu Picchu was by booking a tour because there was only a limited amount of tickets to reach the top. The most popular trek the "Inca Trail" was obviously booked ahead of time probably about half a year ago. Two other alternatives were sold out which left us an eight day and a four day trekking tour. We didn't have too much time on our hands and the Inca trail was a four day tour itself so we figured, let's do it. You can't visit Peru and not see Machu Picchu right? We shrugged off the steep price and booked it. Later as we did more research we found out that the limited tickets are for Huayna Picchu which is the steep mountain that you always see in the postcards of Machu Picchu. Well, we already put our non refundable deposit down and read good things about this trek.

Qorikancha the golden Court Yard

The same company that we booked our trek with said we could join their city tour for free. We figure it was an easy tour and something to do on our last day before our Trek. We met at the tour office at noon and were handed off to someone, who then handed us off to someone else, who shoved us into a huge tour group of maybe 30 people. Our tour guide sounded like he was an announcer of a boxing match. Or rather he would be so enthusiastic it sounded like he was telling a children's fairytale and every other sentence was the climax. But in actuality all he talked about was how much gold and silver there was in the church and how he couldn't believe it. He also boasted how he was once a teacher and proceeded to give us lessons on the sun and how the Incas were great astronomers. It really is interesting, but after he kept repeating how the sun travels after we visit each site it seemed like that's all he talked about. The sun in winter, gold, the sun in summer, the sun again. We considered ditching the tour but the more interesting sites were up next.

Saqsaywaman [Photo cred: Steph]

This picture is probably my favorite one of the day.

So we made it to Saqsaywaman, a short bus ride right above Cusco sit's this ancient ruin of giant stones walls. I actually got yelled at because I started to climb up one of the rocks. Here's a little fun fact not learned from the guide; the name Saqsaywaman actually means "Satisfied Falcon", as most Americans will say sexy-woman. I'm absolutely sure the tour guide was talking about the sun again but i stopped paying attention. We found out the tour was to go on for a few more hours and we decided to ditch it this time around because we had to wake up at 3:30am to catch our bus for the trek.