Bodil decided that she wanted to celebrate her 70th birthday by taking us to Peru, from June 16 - July 1, 2025.
All photos are HERE.
Special collections:
Day 1. Photos are HERE. Monday, June 16.
Bodil wanted to celebrate her 70th birthday by taking us to Peru, with the hope of finding some interesting cultural stuff, especially textiles (since she is a fiber artist), as well as visiting the 15th-century city of Machu Picchu, often called “the Lost City of the Incas”.
We decided to spend six days in Cusco and then travel with Backroads Adventure Travel Tours, which is perfect for active travelers. They offered an Easygoing Dulce Tempo Walking Tour, which was perfect for us as we did not need to get in shape for the 3-5 mile daily walks. Since our meeting place, Cusco, is located at 11,152 feet, we decided to arrive a week early to acclimate and attend the Winter Solstice and other activities in town.
After big hassles with LATAM airlines, where we had to cancel our flight because Larnie had discovered that the info on the boarding passes was messed up, then we had to re-book it, after that, we were a bit delayed in packing. We finished just in time, drove to Sacramento, parked, flew to LAX where we had a 20 oz beer and some Singapore noodles, then did a rough red-eye to Lima. We had bad seats because of the screw up, but the priest who was sitting between us traded with Bodil. Not the best sleep. Then a 5-hour wait before flying up the mountain to Cusco, where we noticed the lack of oxygen.
Cusco had great vibes from the beginning, but the thin air was increasingly difficult. Yolanda was a very sweet and thorough Airbnb host, and marked up a map for us so we could find stuff. She left us a bag of coca leaves to help us adjust to the altitude, but even so, we were pretty out of it as we navigated the narrow, NARROW cobblestone streets. But we managed to trundle around and spotted numerous cafés, shops, galleries, and restaurants to check out later, and an excellent early dinner of Peruvian ceviché and tarragon chicken and rice with coca tea at “Local 525”. Food and service here are wonderful, and prices are much lower than in the States. We went to bed at 8pm (6pm at home) and slept hard for 12 hours
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Day 2. Photos are HERE. Tuesday, June 17.
Still feeling the altitude a lot. We trundled around some more in the San Blas neighborhood, had cappuccinos and bought ground coffee at a tiny, friendly upstairs café, then a big vegan breakfast at Greenpoint Restaurant, with lots of varied beverages. We spotted a laboratory off the restaurant courtyard, and the labtech (with mask & lab coat) was nice enough to give us a tour. He was making tinctures of various sorts of mushrooms, and explained it at length in Spanish. Larnie understood maybe a quarter of it, Bodil less, but it was still fascinating. It rained while we were in there, but it stopped before we left.
Next, we went to our neighborhood San Blas Mercado and did a little grocery shopping ~ for little sweet tomatillo-like fruits that you could just pop into your mouth, various nuts, bananas, oats, coca leaves, and coconut beverage so we could eat something at home as well as out on the streets. Excellent vibe there ~ mostly locals, great quality foods, a general sense of trust.
We rested for a while, had a little more coca tea. Bodil is finding out she can’t have too much, as it makes her heart race. It’s nice in small amounts.
We headed down the hill from our San Blas neighborhood to the Plaza de Armas, central Cusco. There is a week of festivities around the winter solstice. There were brass bands, kids dancing with rock slings accompanied by pan pipes and drums (not hurling stones), lots of folks and groups in native costume. The fabrics people wear here are just gorgeous. The main festival day of Corpus Christi is starting, so there were colorful 2-story retablos leaning up against the cathedral with images of all the Saints and Virgins featured in the parade coming up. There were giant paper maché “alegorias” ~ huge figures depicting cultural or political themes, made by local art students. Big fun celebration, almost all locals enjoying it.
We slowly trundled back up the hill afterwards to our Airbnb, feeling the 11,000 ft. + altitude for sure, found a place close to home for a nice dinner, and rested. We watched a marvelous movie in Bed ~ “The Illusionist”. Why can’t the rest of the movies be good?
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Day 3. Photos are HERE. June 18, 2025, Wednesday
We both slept poorly. Altitude? Coffee? Coca? We had headaches, too. We made coffee at home, and had muesli (sort of ~ mixed stuff from the Mercado with coconut beverage). That helped. Larnie took a very cold, very quick shower. The propane had run out and had not been restocked. We had a business meeting, making sure we had reserved airline seats on our return trip in the distant future. We read more depressing news from home ~ now we have to have a war with Iran? Give peace a chance!
Feeling better, we headed to the San Blas Mercado ~ pretty close ~ past all sorts of new-age cafés, colorful woven goods, and street vendors. We knew that we wanted to try the local mercado lunch ~ sopa (soup) that we had seen all the locals eating yesterday, seated at long or short counters at several different market kitchens. It took some negotiations, but we found seats and soup, and Bodil bought us a wonderful carrot, orange and ginger drink for our next trek down the the big hill, down the many steps and through the narrow streets where you have to walk single file to not get squished by a taxi, down to the Plaza de Armas. It was a sea of colorfully dressed, festive people. We crowded into a space on a corner near the church where we could see pretty well. The saints were coming into the Cathedral! First, we would see a group of men or women, all dressed alike, coming up towards us as a group ~ some in very interesting native garb. Then, there would come maybe 10 or 12 young men, straining to carry a huge wooden scaffold up to the church, sometimes playing with it, spinning it, or walking it back and forth. This was the platform for the saints, patriants, or virgins to rest on. Then, the saint, maybe 15 or 20 feet high, a painted sculpture accompanied by symbolic objects, like potatoes, or corn, or birds, or tools, all sculpted and painted, carried by a sweating and straining group of 30 or 40 adult men, nicely dressed, mostly with some shoulder padding to ease the pain of carrying the 6” x 6” wooden carriers that the saints rested on. Next, a big brass band playing unfamiliar tunes ~ often with some dancers. Then just more people, and then the next saint or virgin. We watched five or six of them round the corner. The men who carried the saints showed signs of discomfort dealing with the weight.
Yolanda had recommended “Patchapapa” for dinner, and it was very good, and traditional Peruvian. The roasted guinea pigs coming out of the huge wood-fired oven looked sad.
After our slow, slow walk up the hill due to the altitude, we came to the Plazoleta de las Nazarenas. The usual waterfall fountain behind it was shut off, and instead there was a pop band playing with five very flashy women dancing and singing in front ~ apparently familiar songs, as the young crowd sang along with them, and dancing. There were plastic bottles with red or yellow liquid being passed around ~ pisco cocktails as we later found out. Everyone was happy and friendly.
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Day 4. Photos are HERE. June 19, 2025, Thursday
We were still adjusting to the altitude, trying to acclimate and take it easy. But taking it easy was not easy as there was so much going on related to the Corpus Christi celebration. There were fireworks often, every hour or so but luckily not during the night. After breakfast and an attempt to make coffee in our airBnB, we headed down the hill from our San Blas neighborhood to the Plaza de Armas.
They were celebrating Mass in front of the Cathedral. The Bishop was there, and it looked like the giant saints and virgins were attending too. After the Mass, the saints started circumambulating the plaza, with all the bands, dancers, and sweaty guys carrying the massive sculptures. Before the Spanish arrived, the Incas used to process around the very same place, carrying mummies of important ancestors. The mummies were in the fetal sitting position, wrapped with many layers of gorgeous hand-woven fabrics.
After joining the festivities in the square, we headed back up the hill to rest for a while, then Bodil gave Larnie a much-needed haircut on the balcony of the airBnB. We have a tradition of Larnie getting haircuts in beautiful places. The last such haircut was in the Swiss Alps.
After the haircut, the saints and virgins were still processing around the plaza. There was a giant retablo just right of the giant doors of the Cathedral. The saints and virgins would all stop there and genuflect in front of it ~ no easy task as it took a coordinated effort from all of the 30 or 40 men who were straining to carry it. We went back up the hill to rest again, and when we came back down, the saints and the virgins were slowly going into the giant doors of the Cathedral. The Cathedral had to have giant doors to accommodate the giant saints. The Incas also built huge doorways to accommodate the Inca, the great ruler and his wife on their palanquins.
The day before we had met a guy in an electronics shop that told us we had to have some traditional chiriuchu (cold plate), so we went out to find it for dinner. It is a special dish, served only once a year around the winter solstice, including foods that represent all the different parts of the country. The Incas, and the peoples before them, as early as 4,000 BCE, established trading routes from the coast through the rich agricultural land in the foothills, to hunting grounds high in the Andes, and on to the rich rainforest of the Amazon. The foods in the dish reflected this ~ including seaweed and fish roe from the coast, corn, potatoes and half a guinea pig (cuy) from the highlands, dried beef or llama from the Andes, spices from the jungle. And one of the hottest peppers Larnie had ever inadvertently eaten.
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Day 5. Photos are HERE. June 20, 2025, Friday
Still having headaches and now more bleeding nostrils from the altitude.
I made coffee, better than before by heating the coconut beverage and all the cups, and sweetening it. Previous days it had been too strong, or not sweet enough. It’s a big production since we have to boil all our drinking water here ~ heating cups then recycling the clean boiled water, nuking the coconut beverage, adding a little brown sugar, etc. We had our muesli too, and got ready to head back down to the Plaza de Armas, the center of Cusco and in front of the Cathedral where Bodil thought we should start our dicewalk.
But first we wanted to visit a bookstore as I had almost finished my Ursula LeGuin fantasy book. It was a very cute tiny place, that was also a bar with two tables and three barstools, with a tiny selection of books, and a tinier selection of books in English. But they were all really good! It was super unlikely, but I found another fantasy book, and then a book on Incan quipu (knotted cord counting/writing system), their writing in textiles and astro-archeological discoveries for Bodil’s 70th birthday gift. Since her actual birthday falls near Christmas, it makes more sense to celebrate it sporadically for the rest of the year. Then she found another book specifically on quipu, so she will not get bored on the plane.
When we got to the Plaza de Armas celebrations were continuing with troupes of native dancers doing traditional dances ~ much more native and much less Catholic than the previous days’ festivities. Some were dancing with slings, but not throwing rocks with them. There were many other ritual objects used, including plants and ceramics, costumes and masks and many symbolic dance moves. One group did a dance in which they laid down in couples, then rolled around together on the asphalt. We saw two or three of them actually got hurt, and went over to an ambulance standing by for first aid! There is always something going on at the plaza.
We did start our dicewalk there ~ using a single die to determine where we would walk. 1 or 2 mean turn left, 3 or 4 mean go forward, and 5 or 6 mean turn right. It was a great dicewalk, taking us to a school of Architecture and Art, past some very picturesque doors and Inca stone ruins, through a huge super-interesting market (Mercado de Wanchaq) and to a very local vegetarian restaurant for lunch.
We needed a rest after that. Later on we went back down to a Plaza to a fancier restaurant ~ Casa Cusqueña ~ which was great. On the way there we stopped to listen to a choir singing on the Cathedral steps. On the way back, there was a crowd again, this time to cheer on stock car drivers gunning their engines, and doing a lap around the plaza. The crowd loved them. The drivers posed for photos with local beauties and threw merch to the people. A beer opener landed at Bodil’s feet, and a nice guy in the crowd picked it up and handed it to her. Always something going on at the plaza.
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Day 6. Photos are HERE. June 21, 2025, Saturday
The actual winter solstice ~ and our last full day in Cusco. The Corpus Christi Celebration was over, and the City was getting ready for another huge celebration, Inti Raymi, the Inca Winter Solstice Festival. We knew that we would miss it because our planned tour with Backroads was starting the next day. However, we ran into a rehearsal at the temple of Qorikancha on our way back from the textile museum.
Bodil did not want to miss the textile museum, so that was our first destination. “Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cuzco (Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco or CTTC) was founded by indigenous weavers from the community of Chinchero as well as international supporters in 1996 as a non-profit organization.” - Wikipedia. The museum was really good. There were some native weavers at work, and Bodil had a chance to talk to them. It provides a good overview of some of the history of native weaving, and some of the techniques. Beautiful work in there!
After a stop for ice cream, we stopped at the Temple of the Sun, Qorikancha. It was the most important temple in the Inca Empire, dedicated to the Apu ("Lord" in Quechua) Inti, often called the Sun God. Our guide would later tell us that the Incas were monotheists, worshiping the Creator Wiracocha, but they revered powerful spirits like the Sun, Moon, Mountains, Earth, etc. Of course, the Spanish built a church over Qorikancha, but the huge Inca walls are still there, and it is still a very important site to native people.
There was a rehearsal for Inti Raymi underway there, and it was very impressive. There were hundreds of people participating with many groups of dancers and musicians dancing and playing, as well as a couple military-looking units. We were moved when they blew their conch shells. Historically, the Incas got theirs over trade routes from Patagonia. Incas use them, like Jews, Buddhists, and other groups for ceremonial occasions. The rehearsal was so powerful that we could only imagine what the actual festival, with everyone in their finest costumes, would be like.
We came back to our Airbnb by way of Calle Siete Diablitos ~ a very old and interesting street. We packed and got ready for the tour starting the next day, and revisited one of our favorite restaurants, “Local 525” for dinner before turning in early.
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Day 7. Photos are HERE. June 22, 2025
Backroads day one!
Today we start our very high-end tour with Backroads.com. We gathered at the very fancy and historic hotel Palacio Nazarenas in Cusco. There were great examples of Spanish/Peruvian painting from the fifteenth century (I think). We met our leaders, Martina and Sam, and the rest of the group. There were 18 of us, all very friendly. We had theorized that there would be at least one person in the group who was a jerk, but there wasn’t.
We took two vans into the Sacred Valley to the village of Mahuaypampa. “Backroads” is well named ~ we drove on dusty dirt roads and came to a place to start hiking (not exactly a trailhead). They had sunblock, hiking poles, water and plenty of nice snacks for us. No one else was on the trail. Bodil was dealing with an injured knee, so she was hiking a bit slower than usual.
We had great views of the valley below. We got to know people on the tour a bit by chatting with them while we walked. We had a great time conversing with our local guide, Josetito. He is a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic guy. Larnie was able to have part of the conversation in very basic Spanish.
Our hike took us to an old Inca grainery, which Josetito explained to us in detail. Basically there were two long rooms with stone walls and thatched roof, and in the lower room the produce, mostly potatoes, could sit on top of air vents to the second room, so it could stay cooler. Beautiful design.
We hiked into the small town of Maras, and into a very high-end restaurant, Iskay Maras Home, in a very unlikely place. The vans met us there, and after lunch, they shuttled us to the next trail. We walked down into a valley, past huge agave plants, and down to the Salineras de Maras ~ the Salt Pans. All down along the valley, and out of sight, were terraced, irregularly shaped and colorful salt drying areas. There are mineral springs above the carefully tended terraces, and they are flooded with the salty mineral water and allowed to dry. The families who manage these work to carefully scrape the different layers of the salts. White is on top ~ decent table salt. The next layer is the choice mineral-rich pink salt. The bottom layer has some clay mixed with it, and is perfect for livestock salt licks. We bought a small bag of the pink salt.
The vans took us into the valley town of Urubamba and to the four-star hotel Sol y Luna. We loved our room, but threw on our bathing suits for a dip in the jacuzzi before the Pisco Sour and gourmet dinner cooking demonstrations with the group. Making some friends at dinner. This is our first time traveling with a tour group, and we are very happy with everything.
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Day 8. Photos are HERE. June 23, 2025
Our second day of the tour with Backroads. We found out we could call room service to get cappuccinos! Life is good. After breakfast and second cappuccinos, Marina and Sam rounded our increasingly friendly group up, made sure we were well provided with sunblock, snacks and water, and herded all 18 of us into our two vans. Larnie didn’t think sunblock would be so important this close to the winter solstice, but we are near the equator, and at this elevation it was a big deal.
We did a nice but short hike into the town of Ollantaytambo, past some impressive Inca stonework, and up the old steps and narrow streets of the old village. We got a first look at the very cute and slightly touristy little town. Martina was friends with a woman who ran a traditional chicheria, where she made and served chicha, the foamy sour but refreshing drink of the Incas. It is only about 3% alcohol, but has many reputed health benefits ~ and is used for religious offerings. She brews the chicha in a huge ceramic pot, and serves it up to her local crowd along with some snacks. Really interesting stop.
We continued our walk through town, then along the Patacancha river to a lovely spot where a sumptuous picnic was waiting for us.
Rested and refreshed, we hopped into our vans, and were driven way, way up the mountain to the tiny, very traditional Andean village of Huilloc. (We-yoc) The people there all wore traditional handwoven clothing. Many of the houses were traditional adobe with thatched roofs. Backroads and Martina have an ongoing relationship with the community. They paid for a modern toilet ~ which guests and locals enjoy. They set up an agreement that the women could sell their weaving for whatever price they choose with no haggling. We were free to take all the photos we wanted and ask questions. We were greeted warmly, and a group of men played some music for us on flutes and drums. Our guide, Josetito, donned his traditional garb and provided a great overview of the culture. We met the women weaving, and Bodil enjoyed seeing the more technical side of the richly-colored work. We wanted to purchase a piece with fox imagery, given our last name. They found one for us, and it turned out to be woven by Dolores’s daughter, a young woman that Martina had known since she was a little girl hiding behind her mother’s skirts. Now she is a master weaver and attending university.
We saw how the guinea pigs were raised. They typically live with a family and eat table scraps and alfalfa. A newly married couple is often given a pair of breeding guinea pigs, and they produce enough offspring to provide protein for a growing family.
As always we found the local people to be serious-minded, kind and friendly. There was a lot to absorb. Backroads provided some words in Quechuan and Bodil asked a weaver for her name and to Bodil’s surprise, the weaver understood and answered her. Really sweet interchange.
We drove down into the town of Urubamba and the studios of sculptor Pablo Seminario. They have a big clay production studio, and make a lot of beautiful functional ceramics. We met Pablo and he talked about his sculpture with us. He’s a visionary ~ his work is based in traditional Peruvian Ceramics and architecture, but his interests range from investigating different materials and new techniques (aluminum and 3-D printing) to often referencing space travel, often combining futuristic imagery with ancient native motifs. We wished we had more time to hang out with him, but we had to go with the group.
After dinner, we went back into the Jacuzzi, which was unfortunate because Bodil slipped, took a misstep, and re-injured her knee. It was very painful, and she could barely walk back to the room. Martina brought special magic cream and ice to heal Bodil’s raised leg.
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Day 9. Photos are HERE. June 24, 2025
We had to repack our stuff to fit into a smaller Backroads duffle bag because of unusual size restrictions on the train to Machu Picchu Pueblo (formerly Agua Callientes ~ still Agua Callientes on Google maps). And we had to get Bodil on her feet after her knee reinjury last night in the Jacuzzi. A knee brace, hiking poles, a couple of advils, a coca candy and two cappuccinos seemed to do the trick. That and her indomitable spirit.
Above the nearby town of Ollantaytambo, there is a significant Inca Archaeological Site. The hillside is covered with Inca farming terraces, and there is an Inca citadel, Temple of the Sun, and fortress built in the mid-15th century by orders of Emperor Pachacutec, the same guy who had Machu Picchu built. We climbed it, Larnie chewing coca leaves and Bodil carefully stepping; we made it to the stopping place near the top with the rest of the group. The site features very impressive Inca stonework, precisely fit together, no piece exactly the same as any other, and designed to withstand earthquakes (but unfortunately, not the Spanish.) After the climb, we enjoyed refreshing fruit drinks with some of our new friends from the tour group.
We had a very special lunch at El Albergue Farm, a restaurant/hotel/coffee roaster/distillery/ agricultural complex a short walk from town. Special, as in “only done on special occasions” ~ it was a Pachamanca, a traditional dish baked on hot stones. First they build a big fire and pile rocks on top. After they are really hot, they take them out with tongs and leather gloves, and throw them in a hole in the ground. Next they take lamb, mutton, alpaca, llama, beef, chicken, or guinea pig, marinated in herbs and spices, different varieties of potato, various other tubers, ears of corn, chilli, and many other ingredients, and place them on the rocks. Then, more hot rocks on top, then huge leaves, then fabric, then dirt, then wait awhile. We visited the coffee roasting place while we waited, and the facilitator explained how to make a perfect cup of coffee ~ carefully weighing the water and the coffee, and carefully timing the process. That all understood, and a bit more caffeinated, lunch was ready, and wonderful as expected. Peruvian comfort food.
We visited the distillery after lunch, and sampled some of the huge variety of cane-based (but not rum) liquors they made there including Matacuy (Spanish for “kills the guinea pig”). It was a very experimental place, and there were huge shelves of experimental elixirs with different ingredients. We’d love to spend a bit more time there.
We walked back to Ollantaytambo and caught the train to Machu Picchu Pueblo, the staging area for Machu Picchu. It was was a very pleasant ride, with local entertainment In the “last car”, great views, and changing weather.
Arriving in Machu Picchu Pueblo (formerly Agua Callientes) was a surreal experience. It seemed a combination of jungle, airport, and tourist market all mixed up. We walked (Bodil limped) to our huge luxury hotel complex, Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel. We settled in, had a wonderful dinner, and braved the huge hot tub ~ fed by the hot springs. No slipping!
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Day 10. Photos are HERE. June 25, 2025
Machu Picchu today!
We had a great breakfast at the hotel; they have a marvelous buffet, and a wonderful window where we could see the river, and do a little birdwatching. There was a tour of the hotel grounds, which we skipped, and rested Bodil’s knee for the trip.
Our group walked through town, and caught a very comfortable bus that took us on a very windy and steep mountain road from the valley to the high Pass where Machu Picchu sits. There was mass confusion on top as the crowd tried to figure out how to hire a guide (required), and get the proper documents and tickets to enter the very popular destination. Our group bypassed all that, and went straight into a restaurant with a lovely buffet set up for us. Afterwards, we were shepherded through the confused crowd of international tourists up to the gatekeepers who checked us off one by one, passports and tickets in hand.
There's really not too much we can say about Machu Picchu that hasn't been said. Of course, it's stunning, historically very significant, architecturally interesting, and sits in a gorgeous place with a huge peak right next to it. The peak is where the Incas had a watchtower. There was a bit of a climb to get into the site, up some steps, but we've seen worse.
Bodil's knee was still bothering her, but she, again, with the help of some Advil, a knee brace with metal support, hiking poles (with the required rubber tips), a couple of cappuccinos, and coca candy, managed to get through it.
Some small details were interesting and easy to overlook in the grandeur. For instance, there were protrusions on some of the stone work to set roof beams on, and little holes in the rocks to tie the thatched roofs onto. A few llamas were wandering about, keeping the grass well trimmed.
We were required to hire a local guide specifically for Machu Picchu. He was nice, well informed, and more than happy to take a back seat to *our* local guide, Josetito, who was clearly the expert. Josetito was especially good at finding astronomical connections in the temples. They were aligned with the celestial objects in very deliberate ways. There was a little bit of a bottleneck point where everyone wanted to take the perfect photo, the one you’ve seen many times of a couple or family with the grand view of the site in the background. We had that same photo taken. We also had good weather ~ many who visit there only see fog from the grand viewpoint.
There is no turning around in Machu Picchu, it is a one-way street ~ up to the overview, then down through the nobility’s and homes, the temples, and then the artisans’ and farmers’ quarters. At its height, it had no more than 1,000 people living there. It was a bit like a combination of Versailles and Notre Dame in France ~ a royal residence and ceremonial center.
If you go to Peru, don’t miss it, but keep in mind that Peru has much more to offer than Machu Picchu.
We took it easy the rest of the day. Bodil’s knee had given most of what it could. We rode the bus down the hill. We rested in our room, then used our “welcome drink” tickets from the hotel for pisco cocktails in the hotel bar. Our group went out to a fun and totally funky pirate/renaissance/native restaurant called “Indio Feliz”. It reminded us of funky restaurants in North Beach, San Francisco.
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Day 11. Photos are HERE. June 26, 2025
It was raining a bit. We got up early, checked out, and walked through the town one last time. The cloud forest here is really very beautiful, and we’d like to come back to this part of the world to explore it. We caught the train back to Ollantaytambo, then a two-hour van ride to Cusco in time for lunch. The vans took us to the San Blas neighborhood ~ which was our old neighborhood, and we were already pretty familiar with it. We walked down the hill to a restaurant that was already a favorite, Pachapapa, specializing in local traditional foods.
Our last hotel with Backroads, and the fanciest, was the Hotel Belmond Palacio Nazarenas. We think this is the first time we have stayed in a five-star hotel. However, they still charged for laundry, like $3 per sock, and we were getting a little ripe, so Larnie found a little laundry in the street behind the hotel that we could afford. We needed help to figure out how to turn the lights on and off in the hotel.
We crashed, and didn’t go out exploring like the rest of the group ~ we both needed the rest, and Bodil’s knee especially needed it.
Dinner that night was in possibly Cusco’s best restaurant, Cicciolina. Wonderful food as always.
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Day 12. Photos are HERE. June 27, 2025
We skipped the first part of the morning’s hike with the group, so as not to tax Bodil’s knee too much. We relaxed in the morning. Larnie picked up the clean laundry
which was wonderful, and then got a taxi to meet the group for a picnic near the Temple of the Moon high above Cusco.
The group was very fired up, and said we had missed a wonderful part of the trip as they had been hiking with llamas. There were still more wonderful parts to come. We took a short walk to a picnic site in the country, with some tents set up for the cooks and a big shade structure for us, and traditional musicians performing, with flutes, panpipes, and drums.
Backroads had prepared a surprise for us; they had hired a shaman to do a blessing ceremony for the group. He, like the musicians, was dressed in native clothing. He had a small smudge going, a small pile of palo santo sticks smoldering ~ a wonderful aroma. Our group gathered around in a semicircle as Lucas explained what he was going to do, translated from Spanish to English by Sam, one of our leaders. He had prepared a blanket with numerous offerings on it for Patcha Mama (mother earth in Quetchuan) ~ each in a little clam shell, and each symbolic except for a few sorts of brightly colored sweets. He explained that Patcha Mama loves sweets. The offerings included several varieties of corn, quinoa, beans, wheat flour, herbs, gold colored beads (to represent gold), animal crackers (to represent animals), pisco, and several other unidentified items. He asked us to put our phones away as he started the ceremony. It was very moving. His voice ( in Spanish with occasional Quetchua) and his hand gestures were magical. One by one, he described the symbolism and importance of each offering as he added it to a heap in the middle of the blanket. The most important offering was coca leaves; he gave each one of us three leaves. He asked us to put our intentions and desires into them ~ the first for ourselves, the second for others, and the third for the whole world. We held the leaves in front of us as he came to each of us one by one and when we were ready, we told him our names. He gathered up the leaves and added them to the offering. He blew a conch shell; he rang a bell, he played a plaintive melody/cry on his little ocharina. He spoke very movingly. He told us that this evening, he and his mother would hike to the top of a nearby Apu (sacred mountain) and leave the offerings there with more prayers. Several of us were in tears by the end of the ceremony.
Afterwards, we had a chance to ask questions. We found out that he had learned his practice mostly from his father and that he specialized in animals. The musicians started up again, and we had another sumptuous picnic. Backroads makes sure that there is more than enough food for everyone in the group, as well as the staff and the cooks, and food to take home for their families. The logistics of putting these tours together are absolutely amazing.
After lunch, we toured more Inca sites, the Temple of the Moon, Q’enqo, and Saqsayhuamán. Saqsayhuamán is huge, with some of the biggest stones we had seen yet in the flawless walls. It was the site of a decisive battle with the Spanish. Josetito told us the story and explained many details of the sites.
As we walked, we came to a spectacular overlook of the City. We were hoping to get a “puzzle shot”. Every year at Christmas, we spend some time working on a puzzle ~ we have one made from one of our photographs, and we hoped to get a good one of Cusco. The jury is still out on that.
We took our two vans back down the hill into Cusco and to the hotel, where we relaxed until dinner.
It was our last group meal together and we enjoyed a time for each of us to talk about our favorite part of our tour and unexpected surprises ~ a little bittersweet, but, wonderful as the tour had been, we were ready to be on our own again. Dinner was at the hotel’s restaurant, Mauka, prepared by famous Peruvian chef Pía León. She took a few minutes to explain the meal to us beforehand. It was wonderful as always ~ we have become very, very spoiled.
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Day 13: Photos are HERE. June 28, 2025
Last day with Backroads. Dos cappuccinos from room service again. Tough life. Buffet breakfast, ultra deluxe as usual, then Martina and Sam led our group on a tour of the Central Market, aka San Pedro Market. Larnie was on a mission to get some Palo Santo (blonde incense wood) for himself, and some chakanas, aka Incan crosses, for his two siblings on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin. There was lots to see at the Market, hallucinogenic San Pedro Cactus, Ihawasca and many other sacred/ceremonial items and ingredients, and huge pieces of Llama jerky ~ the size of a big pillow, but flatter and wrinkly. Turns out the word “jerky” comes from Quechuan. They throw it in soups. L’s mission was successful.
Back to the hotel for packing, then for last goodbyes. It was a really nice group, and we all got closer.
After leaving our luggage with the hotel staff and checking out (I owed a little bit of money for a local beer ~ Backroads took care of everything else), we strolled a couple of hundred feet to the Museum of Pre-Columbian art, and got audio tours, all courtesy of Backroads. They had a lot of pre-Incan stuff there, and pieces in gold, silver, and copper as well as beautiful ceramics and carved wood. There was a lot about the three worlds: the damp underworld, symbolized by a snake, the upper world of stars, sun, moon, clouds, and rainbows, symbolized by birds, especially the condor, and our world, the in-between world, symbolized by big cats, especially the Puma. The museum didn’t seem to recognize that Peruvian Civilizations (at least according to certain archaeologists who make certain podcasts that we like) go back much farther than 1,800 BCE, maybe as far back as 3,000 BCE.
Bodil was still limping, and I wasn’t 100%, from altitude, maybe, or some intestinal bug. We crashed on a bench in the sun for a while, then went to the hotel early, got our luggage, and hopped in our cab, which had shown up early. Got to the airport, baggage dropped off, and went through security fairly easily.
Our Airbnb host, Orlando, in Lima had set up a taxi pickup for us, and we saw Bodil’s name on a card as we came out of the secured area. The room was on the 6th floor of a very angular building with a fabulous view of the Malecón de Miraflores (the grand promenade) and the ocean. We could watch the surfers, joggers, and dogs running around. Many dogs were wearing clothes like those in Cusco. Lima was misty and cool, but we could breathe easier at sea level. We couldn’t figure out the wifi, which was necessary for airline information, and desirable for communications, as the phones didn’t work on the local cellular, so we asked the guy at the front desk, and he got Orlando to come and fix it. We could have done it ourselves by turning off our phones’ VPN and restarting them, but Orlando was really nice about it.
We went out to a wonderful restaurant ~ Lima has excellent restaurants. Still getting great food.
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Day 14. Photos are HERE. June 29, 2025
Day 14: Peru! Bodil decided that she wanted to celebrate her 70th birthday by taking us to Peru, from June 16 - July 1, 2025. We are posting a day-by-day account of our travels every day. CLICK ON THE PHOTOS to see our comments under each picture.
We didn’t have any way to get coffee easily, so we threw on our clothes and went out. We found a very sweet local coffee house. Lima feels very familiar, very much like San Francisco ~ sophisticated, urban, cool, and foggy. It could be anywhere in the world ~ we didn’t see the native presence that was so strong in Cusco. Lima is a colonial city, settled by immigrants.
After our customary two cappuccinos, we spent most of the day in a wonderful museum, the Amano Textile Museum, donated to the world by a private collector. We saw fabrics dating back to 1,800 BCE, very fine, very complex, very meaningful, with stylized images of powerful spirits, and intricate patterns that also carried information. There were also quite a few amazing ceramic pieces and some metalwork. Way better than the museum in Cuzco. It took us a long time to get through, because it was so rich. HERE are all the images from the museum.
They had a contemporary gallery downstairs and a nice little cafe. The contemporary gallery had a few interesting pieces, but not many..
We went to a less fancy, very local seafood restaurant for dinner. They gave us free pisco sours. After dinner, Larnie left his bag on his seat, so our waitress sprinted down the street after us to return it.
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Day 15. Photos are HERE. June 30, 2025
Day 15: Peru! Bodil decided that she wanted to celebrate her 70th birthday by taking us to Peru, from June 16 - July 1, 2025. We are posting a day-by-day account of our travels every day. CLICK ON THE PHOTOS to see our comments under each picture.
Last full day in Peru, another drizzly foggy day in Lima. We figured out how to make coffee in our AirBNB. Bodil wanted to walk along the Malecón de Miraflores, and Larnie wanted to take a dicewalk, so we did both ~ nice, but one of the least inspiring dicewalks ~ through a business and residential very urban area. We could have been in any big city anywhere in the world ~ except we had to continue to throw any used toilet paper into the bin instead of flushing it.
On our way back to our room, we walked past a unique installation of wooden poles ~ like a forest of telephone poles. We were curious about it, and talked to the greeter at the front door. It turned out it was Maido, named the world’s best restaurant in 2025. Perhaps we should have tried to get a table, but we continued on our way to our airBnB. We had a nice long rest, then went out for a really nice sushi dinner, then had a good night’s sleep in spite of watching the last half of a violent Sylvester Stallone movie.
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Day 16. Photos are HERE. July 1, 2025
Leaving damp and foggy Lima. Larnie was supposed to get up at 6:15, throw his clothes on, and get to the taxi by 6:15, but he got up at 5:30, showered and stretched, then crawled back in bed to rest and meditate. Bodil stuck to our pre-planned schedule. We had an uneventful cab ride through interesting neighborhoods to avoid traffic on the freeway. The boarding pass machine worked!!! So we got our boarding passes and luggage tags, and Larnie threw his bag on the conveyor belt, and Bodil did too, but the machine did not like hers, so we had to go stand in another non-moving line for nearly an hour and a half before another machine would accept her bag. LATHAM Airlines. We had time for some breakfast and cappuccinos, and made our flight to LAX.
We arrived in Sacramento late at night, got our bags, found our car, and drove home to Benicia. Good to be in our own bed.
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