Up at 5:30 this morning for a 7:00 departure to the airport. Our group was booked on four different flights to Cusco. Mine was next to last. We made up for it though by boarding on time and sitting on the tarmac for an hour fifteen minutes. I started my altitude medication 24 hours ahead but I could feel it walking down the jetway on arrival. Just a little breathless nothing worse. I found the gentleman who had been sent to fetch us and as soon as the last group arrived we set off for Urumbamba in the Sacred Valley.
I thought Cusco was high at 11115 feet but we had to climb to 12500 to get over the mountains to Sacred Valley. We stopped at the pass to take a photo. Between the altitude, the bad road with tight curves and speed bumps, and short bus with bad suspension, I wasn’t feeling great but I had the foresight to sit in front so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
Since the trip was just under two hours we made a pit stop at a textile co-op called the Naughty Llama. I met my first Peruvian llama and alpaca here. They had lots of pretty alpaca sweaters they wanted me to buy. You know how I love wearing sweaters. It wasn’t too hard to resist.
As I write this, I am in a restaurant listening to a couple guys playing Peruvian flutes and eating for my fresh grilled Peruvian trout with local cheese and vegetables and drinking another Cusquena.
