Peru has been on my list of places to visit since 2012 when a friend posted her adventure to Machu Picchu. My travel friends and I have been trying to plan it since 2011 but we always ended up elsewhere in the world —Greece, Iceland, Morocco etc. Surprisingly with that much sidetracking, we booked the trip within an hour! Rosanna shared a great flight deal to Lima, Peru and although I first declined, I realized it worked well for the American thanksgiving dates when Chi and I were planning a trip somewhere in the US. Our group grew to 8 people and after some debate, we booked the 4 days 3 nights Inca Trek. 

Day 1 – Tuesday, November 22 2016

After a long flight to Lima, four of us (Andrew, Chi, Rosanna and I) arrived in the evening and rushed to catch the Magic Water Circuit and show in the Parque de la Reserva. The park was named the largest water complex in the world by the Guinness Book of the World Records. The 13 water fountains were lit up beautifully. The 20 minute water show used dancing water fountains and a water screen paired with instrumental music. It was comparable to the Bellagio fountains in Las Vegas.

After the show, we roamed the park until they closed at 10:30 and interacted with different fun fountains —a water tunnel, circular maze with water walls and sprouting waters.

We walked to a recommended franchise for rotisserie chicken, Pardos. It was very tasty and I liked their chicken a lot. 

Day 2 – Wednesday, November 23 2016

We caught an early flight to Cusco with our 5th member, Patrick and checked into the trekking office, Alpaca Expeditions. We met up with Sofia and Ronan for our briefing and collected our duffle bags for the porter service. We didn’t notice too much change in the oxygen but when we walked slightly uphill, we were easily out of breath. It made me a bit worried for our upcoming trek! How could I survive hours of hiking uphill? 

We had lunch at Chicha, a reasonably priced restaurant by Gaston Acurio, Peru’s most celebrated chef. The food was good and very well presented. We all got to know each other a little bit better as no one knew everyone in the group, including me. 

We walked to the Plaza de Armas to get a quick feel for Cusco city. It was touristy but very charming, clean and nice to walk around. 

Taking a taxi, we headed up to Saksaywaman, a citadel of the northern outskirts of Cusco.

We explored the ruins and went down these natural stone slides. The rock slides were smooth but there was some bumps along the way down. We also chased some llamas in the field for their photos. 

Next, Patrick haggled taxi fares to Urubamba, a small town in the Sacred Valley about 1 hour away. The ride was really scenic and it was paired with a beautiful sunset. Urubamba definitely felt more like a local town than Cusco’s main plaza. Once we arrived, we had a nice dinner at El Huacatay and then got some sleep.