2001

On this portion of our Peru/Ecuador adventure we began in Cusco at 11,200 feet elevation. (See also the Amazon and Galapagos tabs).After some climatization and exploration of the nearby ruins at Saqsaywaman we travelled North East through the Sacred Valley to the spectacular terraced slopes and ruins at Pisac. Here, at 13,000 ft elevation, hiking was noticeably strenuous. We continued on now heading west to Yucay and the ruins at Urubamba. The next day we travelled to Olantaytambo, again seeing some incredible examples of Inca construction before catching our train for the final leg to Machu Picchu. We spent  2 1/2 days exploring the mountain top abandoned city spending the nights right at the adjacent Machu Picchu Sanctuary.

Awesome!