Day Nine Off to Cuzco

Day Nine

It was hard leaving the team and heading off on our own. It would have been interesting to see the Amazon. But we're heading to a place that's also very interesting Cuzco and Machu Picchu.

Our van picked us up at 9:30 am. The airport is less than 10 miles away. Depending on traffic, it could take between 1 and 3 hours. We were lucky traffic wasn't too bad. We made it through the airport with no problems, boarded our plane for the hour and twenty minute flight.

Coming into the airport, you could really tell you were in the Andes. The cloud level was not that much higher than ground level. It seemed that you could reach up and touch the clouds!

We arrived at Hotel San Jose. It's a very nice place. We settled in and rested for awhile. You could feel the difference in the altitude.  We were now at 12,000 feet. Maureen and I had brought medication for the altitude. We each decided to take a pill as a preventive  measure. We were both hungry, so we ate lunch at the hotel.

We were going to a dinner and folklorico later that night. We ventured out to a local bazaar across from our hotel. It had almost any kind of souvenir that you could imagine. We decided to wait before we bought anything.

Our guide picked us up at 6:30 pm for the drive to the restaurant. It was located in the main square. He dropped us off and told us that he would return at 9:10. We thanked him and went up for dinner. Dinner was buffet style. It had many local delicacies including alpaca and guinea pig. We decided to pass and eat safe stuff like chicken and beef. Meals have always been tough because we can't eat any salads. No raw vegetables. I have been craving a salad for nine days! Anyway the food was very good. During dinner there was a quartet that played traditional Peruvian music. The lead musician and singer played various wooden flutes including the pan flute. He was very good. They also mixed in such songs as John Lennon's Imagine. We bought two of their CD's. Later the folklorico dancers came out. The performed various local dances. It was a quite nice. Our driver picked us up as scheduled and dropped us off at our hotel. We were tired and ready to crash.

Another one of those damn headaches struck me again. This one was probably due to the altitude. At 11:30, I took another altitude pill. It didn't really help, I tossed and turned all night.The night seemed to last forever. When morning finally arrived, I took another altitude pill and some Tylenol.

Hopefully the my headache will go away so that we can enjoy the day.