Travel Trivia: What is the old Inca empire's capital? Cusco, and it's what's next. The Spaniards made Lima the capital, but hey, they weren't here first.

Today was another 6am wakeup to get to the airport and fly from Lima to Cusco. Relatively uneventful, and the suitcase showed no further damage (which is a first). We got into Cusco for lunch, and moved out of Cusco after lunch. We're coming back here, our destination is the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Fortunately, although Cusco is at about 12,000ft, the valley is much lower, making that part of the trip easier for us physically. You do really notice when you're moving at altitude.

We checked into the most amazing hotel yet. The Sol y Luna has absolutely stunning gardens. Hands down. And tons of mockingbirds if you're into that kinda thing, which I'm not. The buildings are beautiful, colorful, great photo opportunities. The "bedrooms" are individual cabins sprinkled around the grounds. The restaurant and bar is heated by a wood fireplace (it gets down to the 40s here at night, and the insulation isn't very good). In other words, an oasis in the Scared Valley.

Wakeup call at 6 and got here at 5:30. We were definitely tired, and before dinner we gathered for a speech by Peter Frost about the overall Peruvian geology and what makes this area so special, as well as an introduction into the Inca's heritage. I wasn't sure I was going to make it through that, but Peter brought some fascinating content to us in a little over an hour. This man discovered a large Inca and pre-Inca site called Qoriwayrachina, which was published in National Geographic magazine in 2004. His work has been funded by NatGeo for many years, and he's done well in return.

So picture this. You're tired. It's been a long two days. You have to be alert until after dinner with a group of 30 or so people. I'm going to be honest with you: I treasure my downtown, and I ain't getting any. It's hard. But here we are, at 6:15pm, at the end of those two long days, and we have a guy who discovered an Inca site tell us about the history of the Inca empire. I mean, this is not my 3rd grade history teacher or some well-learned statistics professor who can tell you everything about what someone else discovered. No, this is the real deal. It's fascinating. Peter is an archeologist who has actually discovered something major. And as he's talking through why certain things are done or look the way they are, he puts his own opinion behind it. And unlike my statistics professor, his opinion actually carries a ton of weight. It was a great intro to the Incas, and a great setup for the next day where we discovered a site together (although Peter "discovered" it for the 126th time). Now I'm fired up about tomorrow!