Cusco and Machu Pichu

Doug and I hung out in Cusco for a few days and saw some cool Inca ruins in town and outside of town, and ate a bunch of Andean food. Then we took the Peru Rail tourist train to Aguas Calientes, which is a total tourist dive but also the portal town to Machu Pichu. the next morning we were going to get up at 4:30 so we could start hiking a one hour long trail to Machu Pichu to avoid the bus crowds. but we awoke to heavy rain so we took teh bus at 6 am. although our big overviews of Machu Pichu were partly obscured, and it rained much of the time, the ruins were still amazing. and we beat most of the folks by seeing the ruins from 6am to 10 am. we returned to our swanking hotel in Cusco that afternoon via the train and flew to Lima the next morning. Doug left for home yesterday and now i am in Huanchaco, outside of Trujillo, checking out the mild surf, beaches, and generally just chilling out.