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November 04, 2014 at 10:10 PM

Machu Picchu Cusco to Sacred Valley

We arrived into Lima, Peru close to midnight last night and then this morning flew from Lima to Cusco. Approximately a one hour thirty minute flight. Also from sea level to 10,500 feet. Needless to say a few felt the altitude when we came off our flight. We then met our coach and local guide Fidel and began our journey to Sacred Valley making several photo stops along the way.

We visited a few ancient Inca farming sites which are located on the mountain sides. These ancient farming plots were in use up until about 8 years ago when it was decided to stop using them to help prevent erosion. Some of the best potatoes and corn are grown at this altitude. I will make sure to post some of the corn as you won’t believe the size of the kernels. We figured the big kernels of corn would make for some very large pop corn. 

We had lunch in Sacred Valley then headed to our hotel to check in and have some time to relax before heading out to our welcome dinner. We also had surprise visitors at our hotel this evening. Dave and Marilyn Bourne from Sarnia, ON who have traveled with Trekkers in the past are traveling back from an Amazon adventure and decided to visit Machu Picchu on their way home. They looked up our hotel and checked-in here and surprised us this evening. It was great to have a visit with them and hear about their current adventure too.

Tomorrow we will continue our photo shoots at several ruins and the salt pans here in Sacred Valley then on Thursday take the train up to Machu Picchu. Enjoy this evenings selection of images. More fun and photos to follow. Good night from Sacred Valley in Peru.

The hillside homesteads as we left the airport in Cusco

Going into the city centre in Cusco

A local gentleman catching up on the days news

Looking down onto Cusco as we climbed the mountain to head to Sacred Valley, notice the Cusco airport in the city centre. An interesting place to fly into.

Some of the kids in the valley getting ready to play soccer

John taking a few photos down into the valley. Notice how windy it was on the mountain side this afternoon.

Tom heading back to our motor coach after photographing the valley, and our local guide Fidel by the bus

Crossing the Sacred River one we hit the valley floor

This little guy was playing at one of the look outs

Looking back into Sacred Valley

You can see a great example of the strip farming that used to happen on the mountain side. This tradition goes back to the ancient Inca times.

A Peru lady weaving belts and hat bands at the side of the road, yours truly has a new band for his hat

One of the local dishes is Guinea Pig, roasted over an open fire, and that’s what you see on the spit next to the black pot. 

This talkative and colourful guy greeted us as we went to lunch today

A stained glass panel in a church we came across today

Our surprise visitors Dave and Marilyn with Nancy, it was a great surprise today.

Another shot with Tom and Bill as this was part of the group of photographers when we went to the Galapagos Islands a few years ago.

That’s it for this evening, good night from Sacred Valley.

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