Peru and Ecuador 2022
In April and May 2022 I visited Peru and Ecuador. The highlights were Machu Picchu and the Galápagos, but I also spent some time in Lima, the Sacred Valley, Cusco, and Quito.
This was my first overseas trip since Covid. I’d scheduled a trip to Israel with Overseas Adventure Travel in the fall of 2020, but after two postponements, I decided that Israel should wait, since they were closing their border every time a new variant was identified. Instead, I settled on OAT’s Machu Picchu and the Galápagos adventure.
I flew from Guadalajara to Lima on AeroMexico via Mexico City. After three nights in Lima we flew to Cusco and immediately headed for the Sacred Valley. We spent two nights in Urubamba before going to Machu Picchu. Then we went back to Cusco for our last two nights in Peru.
Our Ecuador adventure started with three nights in Quito before we flew to the Galápagos. We spent the first night at a hotel in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, and then we had three nights on board the Carina. Besides Santa Cruz, we hit the islands of North Seymour, Santiago, Bartholomew, and Chinese Hat. Although we didn’t cover a large area, we saw a lot both on land and in the water. It was the experience of a lifetime.
We had two different trip leaders for this adventure. In Peru we were led by Henry, in Ecuador by Celso. And for our four days in the Galápagos we had a dedicated guide and naturalist
A few weeks before the trip I got an email from AeroMexico. My flight home was canceled, and I was put on a flight one day later. At first this felt like a major inconvenience, but then I happily embraced the idea of an extra day in Quito.
As usual, I took far too many photos. Especially of animals in the Galápagos. I’ve managed to pare down my photos from almost a thousand to 359. Since that’s still an awful lot, I’ve put together a separate album of my forty top animal pics.
Photo Albums
Lima (128 items)
Lima’s Museo Larco (40 items)
Machu Picchu (148 items)
Machu Picchu town (36 items)
Sacred Valley (163 items)
Cusco (64 items)
Quito (128 items)
Quito Botanical Garden (134 items)
Casa Museo Guayasmín and Capilla del Hombre (48 items)
Henry’s photo montage from Peru
Celso’s photos from Ecuador (87 items)
Galápagos
Everything (363 items)
Birds (104 items)
Reptiles (46 items)
Top 40 animal photos
Blog Posts
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Out with Israel, in with [read on]
After almost two years of planning my trip to Israel, today I canceled.
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On my way to Peru
I’m heading to South America for the second time, and at 11:55 tonight I’ll be on my way to Peru. Right now I’m sitting in the AeroMexico lounge at the airport in Mexico City awaiting my flight.
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The moment I fell in love with Lima
At 4:35 pm I fell in love with Lima. Up til then, I thought Lima was nice enough, but not special or charming or delightful. But at 4:35 pm, my perspective changed.
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Lima in a nutshell
I can only blog so much when I’m on the go all day, so I’m going to provide a “Lima in a nutshell” summary of the last two days here. Tomorrow morning we fly to Cusco, and I have to wake up very early, so I’m going to make this short and sweet. Anyway, seeing…
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Peru’s Sacred Valley: A Recap
I didn’t think I’d be able to blog while staying in Urubamba, but I found the one spot where there is strong and reliable WiFi, so here’s a quick recap of the last two days in the Sacred Valley
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Peru’s Sacred Valley: A Recap (Part Two)
In Part One, I wrote about arriving in Cusco, heading to the Sacred Valley, and the first part of our first full day in Urubamba. I didn’t get to finish, so here is the rest.
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This blog post is not about Machu Picchu
If you want to read all about Machu Picchu, there are a lot of books. There’s a very good article on Wikipedia. And a simple Google search will find you photos that are far better than the ones I took. I’m not going to write about Machu Picchu. Read about it elsewhere if you want. Instead,…
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Peru, Adieu: Sacred Valley and Cusco
I’m in Quito, Ecuador, now, with only about a half hour before we leave on our first of two day’s adventures here — just barely enough time to share a little of our time in Cusco.
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Churches And Chocolate In The Middle Of The World
Arrival We arrived at Mariscal Sucre Quito International Airport, which opened in 2013, and after we got through immigration and customs, we met Celso, our tour leader for Ecuador, and David, who is training to be a tour leader for OAT. By the time we got to our hotel, it was nearly 8:00 pm. A long…
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Quito, I didn’t want to quit you
When AeroMexico emailed me to tell me that my flight home from Quito was canceled and they rebooked me a day later, my first thought was annoyance. But then I realized I was getting an extra day in Quito, and that seemed more like a good thing. And it was!
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Galápagos: The experience of a lifetime
Visiting the Galápagos has been a dream of mine for a long time. Finally, I made it happen, and it exceeded my dreams in every way.
