Sacred Valley

New day, new adventures! Tawnya and I took the Sacred Valley tour today through the Andean mountains via bus and foot. It was a long day, but extremely fun and super educational! Our day started out with breakfast at the hotel (yummy), and we were picked up by the tour bus around 9:00. After picking the rest of the group members up from their respective hotels, we were on our way!



Our first stop was at a little market in Pisac--where we browsed through many beautiful handmade crafts, drank coca tea, and made new animal friends! The llamas/ alpacas were very shy, but super calm and fluffy. I wanted to hug them all, but I guess that's frowned upon. There was a separate little room filled with guinea pig babies and mamas, and they were so cute and squeely and jumpy and adorable and, and...they're a Peruvian delicacy.




Just before we left, I noticed a little grey kitty wandering around the market, nuzzling the patrons and roaming in and out of rooms. Naturally, I called to it "here, kitty kitty!" And she JUMPED IN MY LAP. No joke, Peruvian kitties love me. I wanted to take her home but her likeness was all over the textiles and pottery, I think she was important to them. So onto the next location we went, sans kitties and lamas but avec pretty handmade necklaces!



The next place we went to was the Incan ruins at Pisac. The drive there was very beautiful-- we passed llamas, rivers, tiny villages, and the wind rushing through the valley made a pretty whistling sound...it reminded me of Pocahontas and that "Colors of the Wind" song. We arrived at the base of the mountain around 11:00, and began our trek shortly after--and what a trek it was! We took the ancient trail up to the ancient ruins, and began to feel a little ancient ourselves as, on one of our many little breaks, small children frolicked past our slumped bodies and straight to the top....it was eye-opening. I need to work out more!



Our tour guide was a little bit of a time nazi, so we only had about fifteen minutes to walk around once we got up there. From the top, you could see the entire valley, which was gorgeous. We learned about the "chakana" , which is a traditional Incan symbol, representing heaven, earth, and the underworld, and the condor, the puma, and the serpent accordingly. Half of the symbol is carved into one of the rocks near the sun temple-- and during the winter equinox, its shadow makes the symbol whole-- so cool!


We were early to the tour bus, so we made a new friend while we waited! It was the cutest puppy ever, and it was the hardest thing ever not being allowed to pet him, on account of the possible diseases that we might have contracted....so instead, we fed him cookies! It probably wasn't allowed either, so we kind of sneaked them to him. As we drove away he looked longingly in our direction, and probably thought of the possible cookies he might have enjoyed had we stayed with him. I named him "Cookie", I will remember him always.


Next, we had a yummy, yummy lunch in Calca, a town between Pisac and Ollantaytambo. It was quite filling, but we somehow left room for dessert...and I definitely ate a few cookies once we got back onto the bus...in memory of Cookie, of course. Anywho, the next stop was the ruins at Ollantaytambo. It was like ONE giant staircase that never ended. Located at the top was El Temple Del Sol, and I thought it fitting seeing as how we had just hiked the distance from earth to sun. The view was beautiful, though, and we could see the entire town along with glaciers located on a mountain in the distance.




Our lovely tour guide gave us five whole minutes to roam the area. For some reason, Tawnya and I decided to go a little higher in order to get some really good shots! And I was like "she gave us five minutes, scaling the mountain was not a good choice!" So we hauled ass down and ended up making it before anyone else (and with time to spare!) I guess we overestimated the time it would take--that, plus it was downhill, plus I whipped out my inhaler so that people would get the hell out of our way. The Incas were genius architects, but with the two way street? Not so much. he he





After a long bus ride we went to some church, blah blah blah. It was lovely.

I've been trying to write this blog for about three hours now, but my computer died, and then the internet stopped working, and then my computer died and then my computer died, and then the internet stopped working and then, and then....and I think my brain will explode if I put any more time or effort into this.



So, until next time

Love ya, mean it

E