04 Mar 2020
We were originally booked for the 2-day Inca Trail and Machu Picchu; however, 2 days before we arrived, there was a mudslide and the Inca trail was closed. Conde Travel was very good about notifying us right away, and helping us to pick another option. We chose to do the Sacred Valley Tour for our first day, and the Machu Picchu day tour for our second day. This required a lot of arrangements on their part at the last minute, such as tickets to the sites, getting us on the bus tour, and Inca Train tickets as well, and we were impressed at how everything was handled smoothly.
We also want to make special mention of our tour guide for the Sacred Valley - his name is Juancho VarOch (he goes by Juan), and even though we were added to his tour very late and the only couple who spoke English (everyone else spoke Spanish), he went out of his way to accommodate us. He not only is a very knowledgable person on Inca civilization and culture, but he expresses his love and awe of it with great enthusiasm. We learned so much, and appreciated our time in Peru (including our trip to Machu Picchu the next day) so much more because of what we learned from him. He repeated everything he talked about in Spanish and in English so that we didn't miss anything, and he timed it well, so that while the Spanish speakers explored and took photos, he spent time with us, and while we went on our own, he spent time with them. Although I usually prefer walking and hiking more than doing a bus tour, he made me glad we ended up doing this tour.