There are two parts to the town of San Pedro de Atacama. The historic center is filled mostly with souvenir shops, restaurants, bars and hawkers of visitor activities. (The nicest, friendliest and most polite hawkers we’ve come across on our trip so far, but hawkers nonetheless).
It’s never a good idea to show up at a border post without having first checked whether you need a visa to enter the country and how much the visa will cost.
One of the best things about our Colca Canyon trek was that this was the first time we hiked as part of a group. Even though I’d been avoiding this since I wasn’t sure how other vacationers would appreciate being paired with my sometimes cantankerous children, it worked out fine.
This is our group at the top of Colca Canyon having just climbed up from the valley floor on the morning of the third day of the hike.
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When I asked Renzo, our friendly host at Arequipay Backpackers about the 3-day Colca Canyon hike advertised on their Tours board, he was surprised. He encouraged us to consider the one-day visit to the canyon rim advising that the trek to the bottom of the canyon would be too much for our boys.
I chose the Arequipay Backpackers Hostel because of their advertised fun facilities: a movie room, games tables (pool and table tennis) and, as a special reward for my boys after the Inca Trail hike, a PS3.
“Mom, where are we staying tonight?”
“I don’t know honey”
“Mom, are we going back to the Ninos Hotel?”
“Maybe honey”
“Mom, are we going to stay in Cusco?”
“Maybe, maybe not”
“Mom!”
“Dad!”
I admit that I’d made a mental note of the Ninos Hotel when I first started researching somewhere to stay in Cusco months ago. Of course I’d also noticed that at $25 per-person-per-night, it was over our budget (we try to stick to $12-$15) but the story of this hotel, founded by a Dutch woman with a passion for helping educate street children in Cusco struck a chord with me.
Yay! This photo was taken at Intipunku, the Sun Gate which leads from the Inka Trail to Machu Picchu at the end of our four-day hike.
And this is inside the Machu Picchu site, just below the Sun Gate, with the peak of Huayna Picchu just visible behind us.
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In 2000, the Peruvian government started limiting the number of people who can hike the Inca Trail. Each day only 500 people, including porters and guides, can start this trek.
Back in March, when my husband and I had agreed to include the Inca Trail as part of our activities when visiting Peru with our boys I researched the various tour companies who operate this tour. I’d decided upon Q’ente Tours because their small-group option (max 8 people) wasn’t as expensive as a private group, yet gave us the option of a small group on whom to inflict our children.
