Up at 6 for a cab to the airport which felt quite busy, but checking in online in advance let us do self bag drop and security was reasonable. We met up with Kaia's (and mine, but first Kaia's) friend from Seattle, Molly for our quick flight up to Cuzco. As we descended from the clouds we were met with gorgeous mountain views that became slightly unsettling mountain views as we landed among them. 

A quick cab ride to our hostel and we had our first real evidence of the altitude as we carried our bags up the steps to the hostal. Having read about elevation sickness online and heard more about it from our Huaca Pucllana guide the previous day, we planned to do as little as possible this first day. After resting, we headed to lunch and all felt the early and/or overnight flight and the altitude and returned for a nap in the room and dropping off some laundry and picking up some water. We crashed harder than we expected, and didn't wander out again until after sundown to grab a snack before returning to the hostel for the evening. 

Still getting over our elevation sickness, we had a low key day. Though we had initially had grander aspirations. Most (I think it's all but I am hedging here) of the historical sites around Cusco are accessible with the Boleto Turistico. It's a great system that makes sure that funding is spread between all of the sites, not leaving the less popular ones to degrade. It also affords access to several museums around Cusco. Unfortunately, this was a Sunday, and nearly all of those were closed. So we trundled off to the one that was open (and was also one of our most anticipated) the regional historical museum. 

Our visit began earlier in time than we expected, but quickly entered the pre-Incan and Incan periods that we were most interested in. Then, it moved on to the colonial period. It was...disappointing to read again and again about how the Spaniards destroyed cities, temples, any and all vestiges of local culture in the name of expanding the empire of Christendom. This would be a recurring emotion over the come days of tours of partially destroyed Inca temples and cities as we saw them in person. 

With no further museums to attend, we went to lunch and booked a tour for our last day before crashing again (the altitude is no joke!), and wandered the town and the central market before dinner and packing for our trip to Machu Picchu!

View of the roofs of Cusco from our hotel's dining room

We stored our larger bags at the hostel and brought our backpacks on the walk to the bus station. While there used to be a 5 hour train straight from Cusco, most tours start with a 2 hour van ride to Ollantaytambo followed by a 1.5 hour train to Aguas Calientes. Our 4 seats were rounded out by Manuel from Argentina, who spoke little English, and Molly carried most of the conversation from our end (though he was very indulgent at my attempts at communicating). An unexpected inclusion to our journey was a little play about the warrior Ollanta and princess Cusi Coyllur, but it was all in Spanish, so we got little (none) of it. 

We arrived, had lunch of our own making (PB and Nutella sandwiches!) and wandered the town. An expansive craft fair occupied us until dinner, where we returned to the hostal and had another meal, this time supplemented from the restaurant in the lobby, before heading to bed early. 

Our room had an amazing view of one of the rivers that run through Aguas Calientes, but our shower water was ironically frigid. 

View from our rest stop en route to Ollantaytambo