Our Amazing Trip to Cusco!

We just returned from a fabulous ten days in Cusco!  We did tours of the city of Cusco, the Sacred Valley of the Incas, the valley south of Cusco, Machu Picchu, and went on a fun bike ride through the Sacred Valley!  We visited many amazing Incan ruins, checked out the museums, watched the festivities that took place with the 100-year celebration of the discovery of Machu Picchu, ate at a lot of delicious restaurants, did some shopping, made some new friends, and visited our amazing sister Lynette who is serving in the Cusco mission. Below are pics!


We watched many amazing parades with gorgeous costumes.  Festivities are going on throughout all of July to celebrate the 100-year anniversary of the discovery of Machu Picchu.

Here we are with some women in beautiful traditional clothing.



The amazing structure of Sacsayhuaman.



Another view of Sacsayhuaman.



Here is a lovely view of the Sacred Valley of the Incas.



Pisac; an Incan site in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

Ollantaytambo; an unfinished Incan temple in the Sacred Valley of the Incas.



Pikillacta; a pre-Incan and Incan site in the valley south of Cusco.

Tipon; a beautiful Incan site in the valley south of Cusco.



We went on a day long bike ride through the countryside of Cusco.  It was lovely!



We rode our bikes to the Incan site of Moray.





We finished our excursion by riding down into the lovely city of Urubamba where Lynette is serving her mission.

Only the first 400 people to arrive at Machu Picchu each morning can hike Waynu Picchu, the mountain that rises above Machu Picchu.  In order to secure our spot, we were in line at 2:30 in the morning.  Amazingly enough, hundreds of people were there before us!  We were very excited to be within the first 400!



Machu Picchu!!!  Machu Picchu is absolutely amazing!  We started the morning off by hiking Waynu Picchu (the mountain you see in the background).  Afterwards we went on a tour of the amazing Incan city.



View of the city of Machu Picchu from our hike up Waynu Picchu.



:)



Another view from Waynu Picchu.



View of the mountains that surround Machu Picchu.



Hermana Blunck and Hermana San Francisco visited Machu Picchu with us!





Having lunch with Hermana Blunck and Hermana San Francisco.

What a great trip!