Wow. We´ve come a long way since our last post. We´re now in Bolivia, enjoying our last week and a half of vacation and looking forward to returning home to our friends and family.

Since the last note, we´ve been to:

1. Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was very cool. We´d seen Incan ruins before, but this was the only one that the Spanish never found, so the whole city is completely intact. Our tour guide took us through this
agrarian temple city pointing out the famous mortarless stonework that was used for the most important buildings like temples and the house of the Inca (the king´s house when he came to visit) and the rustic stonework for the houses of the workers. Everywhere there are rocks shaped like distant mountains, puma heads, and condors. Then as the afternoon wore on and the tour groups left, we sat down on the central lawn to soak in the absolutely incredible setting for Machu Picchu.

In fact, it´s mostly this setting that makes Machu Picchu so great. It´s not the most important ruins around (Cusco was the capital of the Incan empire) or the largest. But it has a killer view and is perfectly preserved.

All in all Machu Picchu Pueblo (formerly Aguas Calientes) wasn´t much to scream about. Mostly t least the beer is cheap.

2. The Sacred Valley

So moving on from Machu Picchu we passed through the Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley lies only 20km or so from Cusco and is consequently full of ruins. On our quick moving schedule we only stopped at Pisac. Pisac begins with only a small group of buildings and some agricultural terracing on the top of a large hill overlooking the valley and river below. Puzzled and slightly disappointed at first, we decided to follow the trail back to town. Following this trail along shear cliffs, we were more than a little concerned about our judgment and the quality of a five hundred year-old trail. Eventually, however, came the payoff. Pisac had the finest stonework and one of the neatest Temples of the Sun that we´ve seen. And as the afternoon light glowed across the valley and over the town of Pisac, you could understand why someone would build a temple here.

3. Train!

Tired of busses and moving around, we passed a day in Cusco left on a train for the border.

Arriving at night in Puno we rested and bought tickets for the bus across the border for the next day.

All was uneventful as we headed to the ever so slightly unsettled border area (towns on both sides have lynched their mayors and the border has been shut down several times in the last month) and we passed through the Peruvian exit booth without a problem. But as we walked down the street to cross the border we ran across a gigantic parade, complete with armed Military Police, children in uniform, and a terrible brass band. Turns out today was the day that they celebrate Peruvian-Bolivian cooperation. Phew. Apparently things can get heated at the end of July when both countries have their independence days and they do this every year as a pre-emptive friendship strike.

And that´s how we got to Bolivia. More on our last week in the days to come …