The remainder or our trip was convoluted, so rather than give a day-by-day account, I'm just going to write a little about each place we went. To give you an idea of convoluted, here's the itinerary:
- July 22: Fly from Huaraz to Lima to Cusco, because the only airline (LC Peru) that flies from Huaraz does not fly to Cusco.
- July 23: Cusco
- July 24: Cusco to Ollantaytambo via colectivo (shared van).
- July 25: Train to Macchu Picchu. We returned to Ollantaytambo for the night.
- July 26: Ollantaytambo to Cusco. Colectivo again.
- July 27: Cusco to Lima by plane.
- July 28: Lima. Red-eye flight back to the United States.
If you've been keeping track, we managed to travel by foot, horse, taxi, van, bus, train and plane, including 3 different airlines.
Our travel from Huaraz to Lima was eventful for two reasons. First, our flight from Huaraz to Lima was delayed because the inbound plane from Lima was late "because other planes needed to take off". This meant that we missed our flight in Lima. By this time we had learned enough Spanish to explain that we had flown from Huaraz and that our flight had been delayed. The agents for LAN airlines nodded knowingly and put us on the next flight to Cusco later that afternoon. The second reason was that it was a clear day and we had absolutely astonishing views of the Cordillera Blanca on our flight.
Not knowing what to expect, we arrived at the airport early. We did not expect the airport to be completely empty.
