Ailsa and Andy’s Travels: Day 7 Machu Picchu

We started the day with an orchid tour of the hotel’s gardens. The head gardener armed Andy and I with big magnifying glasses and spent the next 45 minutes pointing out many of the different orchids as we meandered through the hotels beautiful rainforest gardens. Many of the orchids were so tiny, we would have missed them had they not been pointed out to us. It was a fascinating tour, even if there was a slight language barrier!

The bird life is incredible and all round the garden Humming birds can be seen zooming from flower to flower. They are fun to watch as they travel at great speed but can slam the breaks on and simply hover while they make up their mind what they are going to do next! A bit like me on a mission to get something from another room, but then completely forgetting what I was going to get when I arrive there!

This afternoon we met the guide, our fellow group members (a lovely American couple called Dan and Joanna who own a chain of mattress shop in America) and we headed to Machu Picchu which was all of two minutes a way. The weather gods were kind to us and the sun shone all afternoon. Machu Picchu was a fascinating place to learn about - the quality of the stone work reflects the importance of the people living in that building, Windows held great significance in relation to the sun, the layers of the soil were hugely important and worked as a filtration system and the drainage of the city was complex and expertly engineered to name but a few inklings.

Dinner this evening was a lively event. It’s out of season at Machu Picchu just now so Sanctuary Lodge where we are staying is quite quiet. Today, however, a group of 6 ladies arrived who were celebrating a birthday! This resulted in dinner being a lot of fun. Alexander, our Maitre’D entertained us with his numerous card tricks and making coins pass through cups and saucers, Salvatore, the young barman with an exceptional knowledge of spirits and how they are made, spent time talking to us while Andy showed him pictures and taught him some new words e.g. kilt and belly dancing! Andy was telling Salvatore how good his English was and it turns out there has only been one accent that Salvatore really couldn’t understand…..a broad Scottish one, in particular pronunciation of the word “water”! Andy told him not to worry, half the time he couldn’t understand it either 😂. The Peruvian band played while we had dinner and ended with a conga round the room, we were all given instruments to play and the Machu Picchu song was sung by all. We now have mirraccas and a mini drum thing to squeeze into the luggage, I’ve no idea how that’s going to happen. The staff have been exceptional, in fact we’ve never stayed anywhere quite like it, it really has been a dream couple of days.

I know in the future we’ll read this blog to remind us of our adventure so I’m going to write some names down as I know in a few weeks time (quite possibly days knowing our aging memories!) well be trying to remember them…

Orlando was the receptionist, Edy our waiter, Salvatore the barman passionate about Peruvian potatoes, Alexander Aitken our Maitre’D.

This is our last night in Sanctuary Lodge, tomorrow we head for Cusco.