Cusco and Machu Picchu (Peru - part 4)

Eight more hours by bus brought us to Cusco, but that included a couple of interesting tour stops along the way.   Cusco is the staging area for the Inca trail, so there were lots of tourists and eclectic restaurants to serve them (us).  We did some mountain biking in the area; despite being an adventure destination, the trails were very "scrappy."  Rather than flowy single track, it was a combination of donkey paths, dirt roads, open grassy pastures, irrigation ditches, and even plowed fields!  Nonetheless the scenery was usually quite good, passing Inca ruins, rolling farmland, and sometimes spectacular cliff-edge trails.  We even passed a salt mine that had been operating since before Inca times - a mosaic of thousands of evaporating pools.

We connected with my cousin and his family to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.   This four day hike took us up high again (13700 ft), but I had acclimatized sufficiently by this time.  The trail is mostly a series of steep steps built by the Incas for a spiritual journey to Machu Picchu, and it was difficult.  I tried chewing coca leaves like the locals do for extra energy (with the special alkali activator).  It made my mouth a bit numb, and Eileen says I was extra energetic.  Machu Picchu was of course awe inspiring (but you had to overlook the hoards of tourists -a bit too Disneyland at this point I'm afraid).  For the record, we both got travelers D. on the trek, as did about half the group.  I guess sanitation is a challenge on the trail (and I've never seen worse bathrooms in my life - enough said).

It was great to reconnect with my cousin and his wife and their kids after too many years.  And they brought a few of their neighbor friends on the trip - a really great group to hang with -we're glad we met them.

After the trek, we had a nice relaxing day in the sacred valley, except for a wild ride ride in a collectivo(?).   In true clown car fashion, there were 14 of us packed inside a minivan - many were crouch-standing because there was no room to sit of course.  I had many strangers' butts and backs in my face for the short ride.   That's going local!