Peru is a fascinating country to visit. My little blog entry won’t do it justice, but I simply mustn’t leave it out of my chronology. I’ll describe three “walks” we did.

4 km from Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo) to the actual archeological site)

Normal people (excluding those who walk the multi-day Inca Trail) take the shuttle bus from the town to the site. It is something like 7 km on the bus but only about 4 km on foot. Of the 4 km, 1.7 km skims the edge of the switchbacks taken by the bus. We saved $20 and gained some minor bragging points.

At the top, the views were fabulous, as expected. We went on the 20 minute walk to see the Inca Suspension bridge. Fortunately we couldn’t walk on the bridge! The approach was dicey enough.

Cusco City Centre to airport

We were staying in a cheap hostel which did not “do” airport transfers, so when we were told that there was a demonstration and bus/taxi work stoppage the next day, we decided we would walk the 7 km to the airport. The main streets had no traffic as the police and demonstrators did their things. We walked along, seeing the city.

San Isidro and Miraflores in Lima
Back in Lima we walked all around. These areas are fairly affluent, and overlook the Pacific Ocean. Highways skirt the coast, where beaches are very popular in the summer (we were there in late fall). There are lovely walkways and pedestrian overpasses to access the beach. We got down to the beach on such a route but managed to miss the recommended return. Walks with my husband often seem to feature climbing over or under things, or other “short cuts.” Usually he is trying to avoid traffic, but this time it involved scampering across two 4-6 lane highways.

In the end we survived to eat another delicious meal of ceviche and catch a 2:55 a.m. flight to Toronto.