And into the Andes...

This morning we were collected by our driver and guide and brought to the airport, where our boarding passes and luggage labels were taken care of by our guide! I must say that the tour guiding service here in Peru, Metropolitan, employed by Trailfinders, is second to none.

The flight to Cusco was over the Andes and spectacular. I must say that it isn't for the fainthearted to have a window seat. I kept thinking of the plane crash in the Andes in 1973(?) I read the book Alive! afterwards and it has never left me.

On arrival in Cusco we were met by our luggage handler, guide and driver! As Cusco is at an elevation of 3400m, the advice is to get down to a lower elevation ASAP. And so we were driven down to the Sacred Valley. I took a few photos from the car...

Then we stopped at a viewing point to get a view of the Sacred Valley from above.

Our hotel in the Sacred Valley town of Urubamba is the Marriott Tambo del Inka and it is all that you would expect from a Marriott. We're dying for a swim in the indoor/outdoor pool and a relaxing day in the leisure rooms, but that will have to wait a while.

Some hotels have resident cats or dogs.  Ours has two alpacas!

While you are acclimatising for about three days, you're supposed to take it easy. But of course the Paddies couldn't resist going out for an evening walkabout! The streets are full of small cafes and lots of vendors set up with drink stalls, some boxes and upturned buckets for the customers to sit on! Also there were two more elaborate "establishments" with a table and chairs, where the customers were having some kind of noodle soup. I didn't like to photograph them. But a Toyota Corolla caught my eye!

Urubamba scene.