HI Nina,

I wanted to send you a more detailed message about our trip. First of all thank you for putting everything together! Usually I plan everything myself but we never would have gotten the true flavor of Peru without your help. It is obvious how much Peru is in your heart. The people there love you!

All the hotels were great! We were so pooped every night and just went straight to bed most nights. So the clean and comfortable accommodations were much appreciated. The river views from our room in Cuzco were unbelievable. I would like to have recorded the sound of it raging past our window. So calming! The Casona de Yucay was a spectacular place. The grounds and the views- so tranquil. We were so exhausted though we didn’t get to sit at the bar and gaze at the gardens with a Pisco sour! I would have loved to have spent a couple of days there just relaxing if we had had the time.

Your friend Aida was delightful. She is a magnificent cook and hostess. Would love her recipe for the chicken salad! I have her email address and will email her a thank you and pictures. I will also send her a gift from DC- it was very kind of her to welcome us into her home and she had nothing but the highest regard for you.

Isadora! What an amazing woman. I was heartbroken to think that she supports her husband and 6 children! We were very humbled. Jimmy our guide arranged for us to have Guinea pig at her house! That was an experience! I will never forget her as we look at her beautiful weaving.

All the pickups were right on time and our guide Jimmy was extremely knowledgeable and hilarious. He and our driver Jose Roberto became like family.

The Inca trail was unbelievable! Another humbling experience. The porters, chef Richard (who did amazing things with food- he could work at a 5 star restaurant in the US- to think he did it all on 2 little burners!!), and our guide Jimmy never missed a beat. It was embarrassing to see the porters loaded down with stuff running up the trail in sandals! I run marathons and I almost “died” on dead woman’s pass!!!!

The only thing we missed out on was the city tour of Lima. Our flight was delayed for a few hours in Cuzco but we made the best of it when we got to Lima drinking the Pisco sours we were too tired to have in the evenings! LOL We’ll just have to go back! 🙂

The only thing that felt a little touristy was the visit to the ceramics factory bc they just showed us a movie and the gift shop. I thought we would actually see them make the pottery. It was fine though bc it was a lovely place with beautiful stuff.

Oh, the visit to the chicaria was fascinating. We sampled a dozen different kinds of corns and the fermented chicha as well as the chicha morado (spelling). We also got to play the frog coin toss!

We took about 600 pictures so I will go through them in the next couple of weeks and send a pared down version to you.

Thanks again for everything! We really felt like we were traveling with family. I’m sure we would have missed all the unique things like the chicharia, Isadora, markets in Cuzco if it weren’t for you. If I know of anyone going to Peru I will refer them to you!!!!

All best,

Kathy and Drew P.