Educated Travelers and NETC Tour Consultants Victoria Aviles and Leigh Fitzgerald visited Peru on NETC's Incan Empire educational tour this summer. Over the next few days they'll share their experiences exploring the amazing sites and discovering all Peru has to offer.


This morning we were happy to hear that we were going to be boarding a bus to get around Cuzco, the combination of the heat and the high altitude has been tough on us. Because of the altitude, every time we exert any kind of energy, we feel like 85 year old women who haven’t been to the gym in a few decades (no offense grandma) ;-). 

We were introduced to our wonderful local guide, Manuel, who was just a bottomless well of knowledge!


Next was a surprise to Victoria and I…we were going to visit a Llama farm! I was very excited to do this so we could take pictures with the iconic animal of Peru! We also learned about the differences between the Llama, Vicugna and Alpaca! We were a little nervous about the rumors of spitting and kicking, but these were very friendly llamas!! We were able to feed and pet them. Neil even fed one!


We ended the sightseeing day at Sacsayhuaman. The steep walks around these ruins were going to be a practice for Machu Picchu! This was a great example of traditional Incan architecture, with massive square rocks being fit together perfectly. Once we got to top of the ruins there was a great viewpoint to see the entire city of Cusco, it was amazing.


The girls loved doing jumping photos that looked really cool with the mountains and city backdrop!