Cusco..... getting used to high altitude......

The train and bus back to Cusco from Machu Picchu takes about 3 hours so it was quite dark on our arrival.
Imagine our surprise to find that the  Belmond Hotel Monasterio had opened the monastery church to receive us! This was because they had all our information  already from our previous night and only needed to distribute keys!

Lots of gold.....it was very impressive......along with the Gregorian chant!

The room I had here was very definitely the nicest on the tour!

with a great view...... on one side.........

and from the door side it looked out onto the smaller courtyard.....

As it was late on arrival we decided to visit a museum across the street, the  MAP, the Museo de Arte Pre-Columbian, which had a restaurant in the courtyard. This is a sister museum to the Larco in Lima. Again presentation was fantastic... with superb Pre-Columbian ceramics....

And we were the only people viewing! It is also open until 10pm and makes sense to see prior to eating.
The restaurant is a glass enclosure in the courtyard of the museum.........

Food and drinks were good! To be recommended!

Arriving in Cusco.....

An early morning flight to Cusco was on the agenda for day 1 of the tour.......

Flying in was a little hairy! Cusco is at an elevation of 11,200ft and is surrounded by rather high mountains!

......a bit too close for comfort........

Happy to land.....

First stop was to check out the Inca palace of Koricancha which had the Convent Santo Domingo built on top of it......

When the Conquitadores arrived this palace had all walls covered in gold and precious stones ......not much is now left of it!  Still one can see the beautifully aligned blocks....

... although one could see some earthquake evidence....

This was the main palace of the Inca ruler, Atahualpa ........ he was told if he allowed the conquistadores to take all the gold from the walls etc they would leave his people in peace. They killed him instead! Not nice!

Then on to  Sacsayhuaman, a fortress built by the Incas. This was plundered until a few decades ago to contstruct homes in Cusco!
The remaining walls are huge.......with massive boulders.....

Then on to Pisac, a small village with a native handicraft market......

At one point we were able to get a view of the Sacred Valley,

which was to be where we were staying for the first few nights. It is lower than Cusco and so seen as a place to somewhat acclimatize to the high altitude in the area.

We were booked into the Aranwa Sacred Valley hotel which was great. After check in we were greeted by the resident alpaca.........

and the peacock......

 The grounds were beautiful.... it had been an original hacienda

 with its own private church.

The pool looked inviting......but the temperature wasn't warm enough to get me to go in!