{"id":6766,"date":"2025-08-18T15:07:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-18T22:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/?p=6766"},"modified":"2025-11-16T00:20:00","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T07:20:00","slug":"machu-picchu-the-sacred-valley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/2025\/08\/18\/machu-picchu-the-sacred-valley\/","title":{"rendered":"Machu Picchu & the Sacred Valley"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a>Cusco is more than 11,000 ft above sea level, so we booked a ride directly to Ollantaytambo and popped acetazolamide to better acclimate to the altitude. Westley was too exhausted for dinner in town and missed out on Apu Veronica’s<\/a> hearty quinoa soup, alpaca skewers, and chicharrones. The walk back was slow, however, as our tiny house<\/a> was hard to find in the dark and Melody struggled to catch her breath. The unheated and uninsulated tiny house required extra blankets and hot water bottles overnight, but the morning revealed the property’s charming garden, golden retriever, and yoga deck. We retraced our path in daylight to Ollataytambo station<\/a> for our train to Macchu Picchu<\/a>. The Hiram Bingham<\/a> was decked out in old-world opulence, pampering us with a lavish lunch and complimentary backpacks to our destination. Voted one of the “new” Seven Wonders in 2007, Machu Picchu was breathtaking, as our knowledgeable guide taught us about the site’s purported function as a learning center or pilgrimage site, and its unique architectural feats in mortar-less masonry, advanced irrigation, and astronomical alignments. We concluded with elaborate snacks and mocktails at Sanctuary Lodge<\/a>, then boarded the Vistadome<\/a> train that featured music, an alpaca-clothing fashion show, but no views after dark. We had dinner at Apu Veronica<\/a> again for soups and cuy al horno<\/a> – roasted guinea pig with more bone than meat. On Sunday, we awoke early to tour the Ollantaytambo Ruins<\/a> and its resident alpacas and llamas, hunted for an ATM, then relaxed with late breakfast tacos and pancakes at Sunshine Cafe<\/a>. Our day driver took us on a tour through the terraces of Moray<\/a>, salineras de Maras<\/a>, and a stop in Chinchero<\/a> for a textile demo and alpaca sweater shopping alongside beeping guinea pigs and a moaning baby alpaca. We arrived in Pisac for dinner<\/a>, where we watched a French cartoon<\/a> in Spanish with the owners’ daughters as we sampled sopa criolla<\/a>, loma saltado<\/a>, and more food than we could handle. Our cute guest house\u2019s<\/a> made-to-order breakfast stuffed us even more for a morning of bargaining at Pisac market<\/a> for an alpaca blanket, fish paintings, and carved gourds. The hotel staff offered to drive us to Cusco himself, with stops at Awana Kancha<\/a> to feed llamas, alpacas, vicunas, and guanacos, and at Cochahuasi Animal Sanctuary<\/a> to marvel at Andean condors, say ‘hola’ to saluting macaws, and gawk at a spectacle bear. Our room at the Palacio del Inka<\/a> was not yet ready when we arrived, so we checked out the Colonial-style property and nearby Quorikancha<\/a> where Christians built a church atop Incan temples. After settling in, we explored the bustling Plaza de Armas<\/a>\u00a0and tried Nikkei fare<\/a> to feed Westley’s udon cravings as we prepared for the rest of our Andean experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cusco is more than 11,000 ft above sea level, so we booked a ride directly to Ollantaytambo and popped acetazolamide to better acclimate to the altitude. Westley was too exhausted for dinner in town and missed out on Apu Veronica’s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6766"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6766\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6873,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6766\/revisions\/6873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.xephalon.net\/updates\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}