We actually flew into Lima, and spent a day there. We stayed in the Miraflores area, which was supposedly one of the nicer areas. I have no complaints. Nothing much to do in Lima, but a great destination for visiting some of the other spots in Peru. Two nights after our arrival, we hopped an early plane to Cuzco. The flight was about an hour long and it flew right over the Andes so it offered some spectacular views.

We landed in Cuzco and they gave us some coca leaves to chew on to prevent altitude sickness (11,200 ft). We rested up a bit and hit the town. Cuzco is a very small city in the middle of the Andes. The city’s historical and most touristic area is the Plaza de Armas, a small square with plenty of Spanish churches dating from the 1500′s. A traditional food, that has turned into more of a tourist’s dare, is guinea pig, so I figured I’d try it out. They seriously just cut it down the middle, fry it up and slap it on a plate. It didn’t have much taste to it at all.

The adventure really hasn’t even started yet. I’ll have to explain our motives for getting here and what we wanted to accomplish, and of course how everything changed. For now, here is a video from our first night in Cuzco.

I would love to know the statistic of people who have traveled from USA to Cusco, Peru WITHOUT visiting Machu Picchu. I would say the results are rounded to 0%, but I know it isn’t perfect because Lee Fowler and I are two of those people. Our obvious mission when we left Atlanta was to see the history that the Incas left us in the peaks of the Andes, but our method of fulfilling the mission led us astray without regrets. I have nothing else to do with this site, so I figured I’d tell a cool story and post some pictures and video of some some of the amazing places I’ve seen and the incredible journeys I have been on, starting with one of the most recent.