The bucket list

Waking up just next door to an ancient Incan city is something else.  I was out of bed inexplicably early- long before the alarm went off- and ready to get going just about when Cas peeled back the covers and emerged from his much needed slumber.  We’re at the train station, now, waiting for the fancy-pants Hiram Bingham train that will carry us to Cuzco for the next few nights.  That promises to be a good spot for scooping up souvenirs.  We thought it may be a good idea to mail our hiking boots home from there, as well.  

We have a few nights in Cuzco, a few in Quito, Ecuador and then we close out the trip in the Galápagos Islands.  It’s interesting- everyone who booked this tour had some kind of beginning thought.  Some booked for the Galapagos and found Machu Picchu to be the bonus, and for others, it was the other way around.  I actually started out with the idea of Machu Picchu.  It sounded so strange and alien to me.  This giant stone place.  Is it a city?  A fortress?  Some version of an ancient monastery?  And how did life work in this space?  Why so high up?  How did they do anything at that altitude, and where did they get water?  I had more questions than I knew what to do with, and while I could have read a book or watched a documentary, this way seemed so much more interesting.  

We’ve done it.  We came, we saw, we hiked it twice.  We can check off another item from the bucket list and make a new goal.  

Cas and I are both feeling pretty good for the moment- there have been a few moments for us both that had us wondering what we ate or drank that didn’t sit quite right.  

We have a stay tonight in the second Belmont Hotel property we’ll visit.  Apparently, those are a really big deal.  I will look later to see how much a one-night stay costs independent of this tour group, but for now, I would rather not know.  

But that’s it for now- Splendor?  Check.  Grandeur?  Check.  What’s next?  

Here is Our Photo Album.