Well we’re back from Machu Picchu and Cusco….what a trip! We spent 2 nights at the Monasterio Hotel (really was an old Monastery years ago) in Cusco and did a long day trip up and back to Machu Picchu on the Orient Express “Hiram Bingham” train. The whole trip was such fun. Machu Picchu is so amazing and something I’d recommend EVERYONE should do once in a life time. The very high elevation in Cusco really got to many within the group of 50 passengers. Luckily, I did fine but poor Tom didn’t fair quite so well. He was very light headed and had a headache. The Monasterio Hotel had oxygen tanks to help but even that was only temporary help. Some rooms are capable of having oxygen pumped in through the vents but not ours. He didn’t have trouble in M.P, only in Cusco. We were traveling with about 10 good friends and the women all seemed to do better with the elevation than the men. The Hiram Bingham train was very first class and such fun. We took over one car and other than eating we spent most of the time to and from in the bar car with live music. The scenery was so magnificent….that alone was worth the trip! I thought I had seen tall mountains in the USA and Canada but NOTHING can compare to the spectacular Andes Mountains. All of Peru is so awesome and the people are so friendly . Once in Machu Picchu people could do as much or as little walking with the guide as they wanted.

In Cusco we did a city tour which included going into the countryside and visiting a Llama/Alpaca farm….right up my alley! Yesterday our flight out of Cusco was delayed due to fog so we were late leaving and arriving in Lima. We had a 4 hour stop over in Lima which included a city tour of Lima and a very nice lunch. The plane was late leaving Lima (the domino effect of all the flights in and out of Lima all day) so we didn’t arrive back to the ship until around 9:00. We were originally schedule to arrive at 5:45pm for a 7:00 sail away. We were greeted by Capt Philippe and several other officers upon our return and we eventually sailed away around 9:30 or 10. We went directly to Compass Rose for dinner looking like a group of tattered refuges. We had a lot of laughs at dinner reliving the past few days. It really was a fantastic trip but it was great coming back to our home on the Mariner….our HOME at SEA LEVEL!!! Funny enough, most of us ended up getting our second wind, I think we were all slap-happy. I stayed up talking to friends and hitting the casino for a short time. None of us made it to the show to see Kenny Smiles who is now onboard. I came up to bed around 12:30. I had no idea where Tom was… he ended up in Stars Lounge until around 1:00. Today is a much needed sea day after a grueling 3 days. We’ll be in Manta, Ecuador tomorrow.

I’ll post just a few pictures of Machu Picchu since Ngaire had posted such great ones of her trip there. Also have some taken on the train and at the llama/alpaca farm. I know I promised a photo of me as a brunette….and I always keep my promise! BTW, that went over just great. I had so much fun being a brunette for the evening. Tom was very surprised. I can’t even count how many friends onboard walked right past me and had no idea who I was!! Lots of fun!

Our group of around 30 is having an Asian dinner night soon with a Chinese gift exchange (the kind where you draw numbers and you can steal gifts from those who have selected gifts before you). They’re going to give us the private half of LaVeranda again. It will be another night with lots of laughs I’m sure!

BTW, we ran into Lynn and Doug Burns at the Monasterio Hotel. Since they disembarked in Lima they were on a different tour than ours. They were going to M.P. on the Hiram Bingham train one day after our group. We were happy to get to see them again and I’m sure Doug will be posting again soon when they arrive home. I also forgot to mention meeting a great couple: Ralph and Carol who were on segment 3 (djw521 is the screen name on LCT). Ralph joined in our Texas Hold’em games on sea days. They too will be missed on this final segment.

Well…here are a few photos (best to view as a slideshow):
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