I posted this on Fodor's but thought it worth posting here as well.
DH and I were in Perú for two weeks in April (April 2-18, including travel days). We had a fantastic time. Our days were so full that I did not have time to blog while we were on the road. So, I have started posting in bits and pieces now. What with work and everything, it’s going to take me a while to get through the entire trip, but if you want to check the blog out, you’ll find it here: http://2totravel.blogspot.com/. Start with …blogspot.com/2007/03/realm-of-incas-land-of… and work your way up. Each entry has a few photos; online galleries will follow though they will take even longer than the blog to publish.
While I’m at it, I want to put in a plug for Vidal Jaquehua, the founder and manager of Adventure Holidays Perú (http://www.adventureholidaysperu.com/), the small Cusco-based company with which we made all of the arrangements for our trip. Vidal is simply great — a great person; a great guide. With his charming personality, sense of humor, and the treasure-trove of information he shared with us, he added tremendously to our enjoyment of the trip. He listened to our wants/needs and organized a trip that was completely in synch with our travel style. He was incredibly flexible during the planning process as my continued research brought about many changes to the original itinerary. I asked him to book our hotels and our domestic airline tickets as well as guide us while we were in Perú. I was grateful that he was with us when an onslaught of food poisoning (brought along from the US) felled me unexpectedly at the Pisac market. The vehicles he arranged for the duration of our trip were brand new, clean, and well-maintained.
He accompanied us to the various sites around Cusco, as well as to Ollantaytambo, MP, and later to Lake Titicaca. (At each of these places, we also had plenty of time on our own.) Vidal was to have met us at Lake Titicaca on the 14th (he was going to take the bus on the night of the 13th in order to be there for our arrival by plane the next day). When he was unable to get out on the 13th due to the strike, he came to see us off at the airport and we bid him farewell not expecting to see him again. It turns out that he managed to get out on the night of the 14th and made the long trip to Lake Titicaca just because he had made that commitment to us when organizing the trip.
Vidal is very proud of his Quechua lineage and very involved in the local communities. At many of the villages we visited, he handed out gifts of pencils, books, shoes to kids — purchased out of his own profits, or in some cases, sent to him by former clients. He took photographs (has a great eye for photography, by the way) of the kids with their gifts to send to his clients — the delight on the kids’ faces was something to behold.
So, if it sounds like we are quite taken with Vidal and the services he provided, we are. We would highly recommend him to any friends or family members who might visit Perú, and do so on this forum as well.
If you have any specific questions about our trip, I’ll do my best to answer them.
