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Guide recommendation Cusco Sacred Valley Machu Picchu

Guide recommendation Cusco Sacred Valley Machu Picchu

Old Feb 9th, 2017, 10:03 AM
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Guide recommendation Cusco Sacred Valley Machu Picchu

We just returned from a 5 day trip (January 19- 23, 2017) to Cusco, Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu where we did a private tour with David Choque ([email protected]).

We planned this trip as an extension of a Galapagos tour (January 12-18th). Our tour's return flight was connecting in Lima and we thought "why not visit Peru since we're here"! We were looking for an efficient way to get from Cusco to Ollantaytambo before our trip to Machu Picchu that would also allow us to see the sights of the Sacred Valley. Most tours that I looked at seemed to use Cusco as a home base. We were trying to avoid any altitude problems, since we were under time constraints and preferred to stay in the area of the Sacred Valley where the altitude was not as high.We contacted David based on the reviews on this forum and he was able to customize an itinerary based on our interests, needs and time constraints.

David booked lovely hotels for us, planned each day based on weather, planned for a guide to meet us at Machu Picchu, provided all our transportation needs, and entrance tickets. His son Omar was our driver and would drop us off at sites and pick us up. The whole process was seamless and we didn't have to worry about a thing.
We could not have asked for a better guide. David has an extensive knowledge of the area, it's history and it's people. David speaks English fluently and is warm & friendly.

Our itinerary:
Day 1
8am David & Omar picked us up at Cusco Airport. We visited Awanacancha (alpaca farm), Town of Pisac Ruins, Pisac Market. We made many stops along the picturesque Sacred Valley. We lunched in Urubamba and transferred to our hotel Pakaritampu in Ollantaytambo. This hotel was our favorite. Beautiful setting, easy walk up to town and the ruins of Ollantaytambo and easy walk down to the train to Aguas Calientes.

Day 2
David & Omar picked us up at the hotel to tour the Sacred Valley. We visited Chinchero, Maras & Moray. The scenery was breathtaking!
At 4:30 pm David dropped us off at the train station for our trip to Aguas Calientes (we wanted to stay here so that we could take the earliest bus up to Machu Picchu)
6pm We were met at the train station by a staff member of Tierra Viva Machu Picchu Hotel. We had the evening to explore the small village of Aguas Calientes.

Day 3
6am we were met by our guide, Victor, and proceeded to the bus for Machu Picchu. Victor provided a 3 hour guided tour of Machu Picchu after which we explored on our own. It was pouring rain when we went up to MP (January is the rainy season), and we were disappointed that we may not be able to see the iconic view, but at 10am we saw it brighten and gradually the clouds rose and Machu Picchu was exposed to us in all its glory! It was worth it!
1pm we came down to the town and had lunch at Toto's
4:30 we took the train back to Ollantaytambo. We had a bimodal ticket. A bus was provided at Ollantaytambo back to Cusco.
8:30 David & Omar picked us up and transported us to our hotel for the night

Day 4
9am David & Omar picked us up at our hotel for a tour of Cusco City and the surrounding ruins.(Cristo Blanco and view of Cusco,Sacsayhuaman, Qenqo, Qoricancha)
1pm David & Omar drove us to the airport for our flight to Lima arriving at 4pm. We had a 2am flight back to NY, so David arranged for a driver to meet us in Lima so that we might be able to tour Lima. At the end of our tour Jesus dropped us off at a wonderful restaurant in Miraflores La Rosa Nautica Restaurant for our final dinner and then he dropped us at the airport.
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