Fire in the Sky
May 12th brought me to Cusco, albeit a bit late because of (supposedly) bad weather. When we arrived the weather was beautiful, but I understand there is often fog in the morning – and no pilot in his right mind would attempt this landing on instruments.
For my skydiving friends, landing in Cusco is about like this: you fly in about a thousand feet above the mountains, which are around 12k’. Descend about a thousand feet to mountaintop level, then do a 180° hook turn into the valley and land. Considering the cruising altitude was probably 15-18k’, there was almost no descent – just one high-performance turn!
The view from my hotel room at Hostal Buena Vista
Yours truly at the Sacsayhuaman ruins at 3,701m, which have truly amazing stonework
A choice sunset shot (out of about 50 I took) – flaming hot
I wrapped up the day at the Inka Grill, where I had alpaca steak. But those details will have to wait, as it’s time for bed – I get up around 4am tomorrow to climb the mountain next to Machu Picchu. Will let you know how that goes in a couple of days, if I don’t fall off Huayna Picchu – hah!
Tags: Cusco, Machu Picchu, Peru, Shadow, Sunset
That sunset looks truly magnificent!
.-= Dina ´s last blog ..Friday Photo: Best Looking Hitchhiking Backpackers =-.
Thanks Dina! I hope to have a lot more by the end of the trip. But so far I’ve been in canyons for a couple of the sunsets, so didn’t have much chance 😉
One or two potentially nice HDR shots from the rainforest at Puerto Maldonado…
What a gorgeous sunset!
Hope the skydiving went well?
Is there anything you can’t do?
Wendy, I think I was lucky with that sunset, and I had the perfect position to photograph it
Hmm… well the paragliding would be a tandem flight, so something anyone could do as long as they weren’t afraid of heights ;-). That might be today, but the weather is cloudy and misty (normal Lima winter weather). So I’m not sure that I will end up doing it. Let’s see!
Beautiful!!