Everyone who visits Peru visits Cusco, city of the Incas, and Machu
Picchu, the famous Inca ruins. We were no exception. Many people fly
from Lima to Cusco, but we travel by bus. Most travel through Peru's
second largest city, Arequipa, but we took a discount 'semi cama' or
half-bed bus from a town near Paracas. Discount buses in Peru are
perhaps not a good idea. Our bus picked up people all along the
route, and late at night on my way to the bathroom I could easily have
stepped on the face of one of these people sleeping on the floor.
Luckily my iPhone provided enough light to avoid this unfortunate
event.

Cusco, located in the Inca's 'Sacred Valley', was sold to me as the
gringo (American) hangout in South America, and a party town. I
didn't find much interesting there; the city is surrounded by
deforested hills, agriculture, and the usual third world
overpopulation/poverty. I only enjoyed the vegetarian restaurant
where a three course meal was under $2 US. I asked where I could find
birds, and people told me the most natural place in the Sacred Valley
was a town called Urubamba. So we took a bus there, and there were a
few clumps of trees and brush, and a few seedeaters, doves, the Hooded
Siskin and Black-throated Flowerpiercer, but really not very much too
see. No birds, like vultures, fly over the Sacred Valley. In a week
I saw one Kestrel and, briefly, one unidentified hawk or Caracara.

To get to Machu Picchu, you have to take a train to the town at the
base, called Aguas Calientes, from a town called Ollantaytambo.
The train is quite costly, so there is an alternate method involving a
long car ride and long walk along the railroad tracks. Later I
learned this alternative was very popular. So we took a bus to
Ollantaytambo, and the train to Aguas Calientes. Ollantaytambo already
seemed more promising. I don't know what changed, but there is a
transition into a cloud forest between Cusco and Machu Picchu. In
Ollantaytambo check for hummingbirds around the train station and the
garden of the American hotel on the right. On my next trip to the area,
I am skipping Cusco and the Sacred Valley, and starting in Aguas Calientes
or Ollantaytambo.

Aguas Calientes is a great birding destination. Finally you are in a
real cloud forest, and one full of birds. We visited in the wet
season, when we could get a double for $10/night. I heard in the dry
season people have to sleep in the streets. It did rain a few hours a day
on average, but we were lucky that our day at Machu Picchu was dry.

In Aguas Calientes, check the fast running river for Torrent Ducks;
you should see them. Fasciated Tiger Herons might be seen on the far
shore. Walking away from the Sacred Valley on the railroad is
allegedly a sure place to see an Andean Cock-of-the-Rock, and we did
see a female once on two tries. The Highland Motmot was seen twice.
The Machu Picchu Hotel in the city of Aguas Calientes has great
hummingbird feeders, with about fifteen species seen over the course
of a year, but alas the rooms are $400/night. I managed to pull some
strings, and was able to visit the feeders. The Long-tailed Sylph,
Orange-breasted Coronet, Violetears, and Booted Rackettail were
abundant.

And you will have to visit Machu Picchu. The hike up is easy enough
and the best way to get there. At the ruins people have seen the
Mountain Caracara, but I just saw many Rufous-collared Sparrows and
Blue-and-white Swallows.