Peru - Day 3

Monday, March 19, 2007

At 8am, we were picked up by our driver, Ciro...

He drove us out of Cusco towards the Sacred Valley.
Some pics from our drive.....

hard to see, but a flock of sheep with shepherdesses in traditional dress


some small ruins
houses are generally made from mud bricks
Scenic View from along the way

Ciro first took us to Pisac, a village in the Sacred Valley. Our first close up look/hike along some Incan Ruins (read the wiki link for description)....

Pisac ruins

Cemetary (note the holes in the hill)




This is what high altitude does to you (makes you crazy!)

Neill, what are you doing??
Dave climbs everything
Sheep!
Lambs!
Can you see the sheep?

Neill and Dave having a race up the trail (they both died going up. too hard at high altitude!)
Can you see the sheep? (Ha ha, I can't!)
Super corn

After Pisac, Ciro drove us out to Ollantaytambo (another town with large intact ruins) for lunch, ruins, and a train ride.... We had lots of fun saying Ollantaytambo (oy-yan-tai-tam-bo) all the time.

Dave and Neill waiting for lunch to show up. We had this monstrous meal, whereas the Italian family to our right (on the left in the pic) didn't eat much (one kid had a single fried egg, another little kid had a small plate of fries, the mom had a small small salad... crazy people with small stomachs.)

Statue in middle of Ollantaytambo's Plaza

View from the lunch place and Ciro's car (on the left)
Map of the Ollantaytambo Incan Ruins


Do you see the face in the mountainside?

This looks like a big nose


Leaving our mark

Hint, the cactus we carved is in this picture


Ollantaytambo Marketplace

Melissa's Hairsalon
Burro!

Train to Aguas Calientes

Waiting for the train was crazy! The train was almost an hour late, and there was a horde of people waiting in front of these wire gates. Half were tourists with large backpacks of gear, the other half were locals heading to Aguas Calientes to sell their wares or foods at the marketplace over there. I saw people carrying huge stacks of eggs, and even stacks of 500 styrofoam plates! The crowd was getting very restless with the late train with many people calling out "Ahora! Ahora!" (Now! Now!) to the station agents to open the gates.... Once the gates DID open, it was pretty scary. I think a young child could be easily trampled in a situation like that.... But we got on the train, safe and sound... 2 hours later, we were in Aguas Calientes. During that time, it started raining. No, it wasn't just raining, it was POURING.... Thank goodness we brought ponchos with us!

We were met by a man taking us to our hostel, Hostel Ima Sumac. Another place our travel agent booked us. Okay, I have to say in retrospect, our travel agent did a great job arranging out activities, but man, she SUCKS at finding suitable lodging!... Whatever, we sucked it up and anticipated our nice room waiting for us in Cusco....

Oh, and we were starving, so we ran over to a nearby restaurant for their hamburger special: "hamburger", fries, and a coke for just about $2!! The hamburger was interesting as the patty was pretty flat and had some veggies in it (reminded me more of a meatloaf?).

Also, some more food stuff from Ollantaytambo... Neill ordered a panqueque today. Yup, that's pronounced pan-kay-kay, as in pancake!... I'm starting to realize I REALLY like cafe con leche. It's a big deal to order a cafe con leche because you end up with all sorts of little pots in front of you. One for the cafe (which is more like espresso), one for the leche, one for the extra hot water to dilute the crazy espresso, and then one for the sugar. And don't forget the cup and saucer for you to make your drink.... Dang, that was good.... AND DAVE really really really enjoys drinking espressos. Funny, because it doesn't keep him awake!