A long trip, the highlights kept building as time went on. Rio, Buenos Airies, Iguazu Falls, the Amazon rainforest, Galapagos, and now the delayed purpose of the trip, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and Cuzco, via Lima, to celebrate C’s 70th birthday postponed due to the pandemic.
We flew from Guayaquil, Ecuador to Lima Peru where we checked into our tiny basic but clean room for two nights.
We were lucky to have a window with an interesting street view, a 50/50 chance.
The other rooms faced a wall. Our full day was packed with a city and convent tour, geocaching and free time. Required geocache photo:
In the morning it was off to the mountains, traveling from sea level to 3399 meters (11,153ft) Flying into Cuzco was thrilling. The runway has a 14,000 ft mountain at one end and the airport is regularly closed due to weather challenges. Night flights are permitted at night and pilots are required to have special training to use the airport. We seemed to fly precariously low in the high mountains for a considerable period of time.
We transferred by bus to the Sacred Valley, stopping at an alpaca wool farm,
Yes, they do spit, this guy was unhappy I was feeding him too slowly and spit a mouthful at me. Not a slobbery mass, just a well aimed chunk of chewed grass. That was enough for me. I walked away from the alpaca.
We drove past restaurants with huge statues of Guinea pigs advertising the South American delicacy.
And saw women on the roadside selling boiled corn with giant kernels accompanied by a slab of farmer cheese.
We turned left at a derelict looking establishment, thinking it was our possibly adequate accommodation in the “charm category” that until this point had exceeded our expectations.
Wrong. Bumping a considerable way down a rocky dirt road, we ended at a riverfront paradise.
The next morning we bussed to Ollantaytambo one of the three Peruvian towns providing rail service to Machu Picchu. Our train was so late we missed our time slot for admission to the historic site. The tension level was high, thinking the delay had impacted our time there, but not to worry. To control the levels of tourism, small groups are only allowed in with a guide for a period of three hours throughout the day.
Disembarking the train we saw a guide holding a sign bearing our name, always a comforting feeling. He had us booked into the next time slot.
To be continued
Life's a Stitch 
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