Turn Right at Machu Picchu, Plus Galapagos

Red-billed tropicbird I finally made it to Machu Picchu!

I had planned to go back in 2016, but that trip got punted in favor of a trip to Serbia instead (which I documented here). No problem, I thought. I’ll schedule it for the next year. That didn’t happen (I went to South Korea, China, Australia, and New Zealand instead). Another 40+ countries and nine years later I finally did the Machu Picchu trip. And threw in the Galapagos Islands as a bonus.

We booked a tour with Road Scholar, a 50-year-old company specializing in educational learning, which was important to us. I’ll have more details later, but here are some highlights of the trip. Joining fourteen others from around the United States, we flew first to Lima, Peru. Touring the city one day, we then flew on to Cusco, only to head out to the Sacred Valley to climb the Ollantaytambo ruins and visit an alpaca/llama/vicuna farm. After a day or so there we headed back to Ollantaytambo to take the famous rail line to Aguas Calientes (aka, Machu Picchu Village), where we spent the night. Taking the treacherous bus ride up to the Machu Picchu gate was worth it. Finally being able to stand in the iconic viewing spot to get a photo of the ancient Incan village was a dream come true. We also got to hike around the village itself and learn from a guide with traditional ancestry.

Machu Picchu

Eventually we headed back to Cusco for a couple of days, touring the city and going out to the Sacsayhuamen ruins just outside of town. In both Machu Picchu and Sacsayhuamen we got to see the amazing Incan craftmanship, with many-ton blocks of rock placed together so tightly you can’t slip a piece of paper between them. We also got to experience local Peruvian music and hear lectures on Peruvian agriculture (including 4000 varieties of potatoes and corn), Inca and pre-Inca history, and musical instruments. We even had a lesson in making ceviche.

Then it was off to Ecuador with a quick flight from Cusco to Lima and then on to Quito. After touring Quito for a day or so, we hopped on another plane, stopping in Guayaquil to refuel and trade passengers, then out to the Galapagos for the second half of the adventure. This really was two trips in one. The Peru part was all about ancient culture and civilizations. The Galapagos part was all about communing with nature.

Galapagos map

In all, we visited eight Galapagos Islands in the middle and eastern part of the archipelago (there is a separate tour for the western islands). We arrived in Baltra, which is mostly airport, then spent time on Santa Cruz, the amazing bird island of Genovesa, Plaza Sur (South Island), Santa Fe, Floreana, Espanola, and San Cristobal. Mostly we were by ourselves on the islands, sometimes overlapping with another tour boat. All tours are limited to no more than 16 passengers to help protect the native flora and fauna. During the week in the Galapagos, we had plenty of opportunity to snorkel with green turtles and sea lions, kayak around the rocky inlets (often with young sea lions frolicking around us), and hiking in the bird-filled environments. There were plenty of blue-footed, red-footed, and Nazca boobies, albatross, and tons of other birds and their babies, not to mention land and marine iguanas, and unique species like lava lizards and lava herons.

It was hard to come home after 17 days on the road (and in the air and on the water), and it didn’t help that I got a bad cold upon my return. But the time spent in both Peru and Ecuador is something I’ll treasure forever.