I woke up in a rush realizing I was running behind this morning. The bus was coming at 8:15 and already it was 8 and we hadn’t eaten anything. I didn’t rush too much at breakfast thinking about all the other times they said be ready by “so and so o’clock” and 15 minutes later they showed up. So we sat down to eat and just like clockwork the bus arrived at 8:15. With food hanging out of our mouths, we scrambled to check our bags into the hotel, since we wouldn’t be back that night, and ran to the bus. Once on the bus we herded some more travelers up and headed out on the tour.

On the bus ready for a busy day

Since we were still sunburned from the day before, we decided sun block was the first priority. Unfortunately I didn’t bring sunglasses on the trip, which I would recommend to everyone to do. Sunglasses, hat and sun block- REAPPLY REAPPLY REAPPLY! (You’ll thank me later) I say that now as my eyes sting and are blood shot from the sun. It’s no wonder they respect the Sun here.

Sunny as always

The first stop was in the early morning to the Pisac Artisanal Market. You’re typical tourist market stop, but there were actually some good deals to be had here. It had just opened and we were the first customers of the days, so we found ourselves hearing “I give you prima venta discount” or “for you, prima venta” which means first sale of the day. I’m sure later on they have other slogans like “for you, last sale special price” or “pretty lady discount”. I only bought a traditional cap that I had been looking for and paid 20 soles (no bargaining) which is like $6.50. Then I helped Mareike on her shopping spree which I had been preventing for days… She bought a bunch of silver jewelry and a baby alpaca rug/throw. I’m a little jealous because it is so soft and yummy, I just want to bury my head in it—but none for me because knowing my cat he would eat it.

Mom wearing the hat I bought

We got back on the bus 30 minutes on our way to Urabambo/Pisac ruins. This walk didn’t look so menacing when we first arrived, but it became suddenly apparent once you start hiking that it is not going to be a walk in the park. It takes about 30-40 minutes to trek to the lowest point. About 15 minutes into the walk half our group decided to turn around. I will admit it was full sun out and hot, and looked all uphill, but hey, that meant the way back was downhill!

Short hike

Views along the way

More walking...huff

Mareike peeking around the entrance gate

At the top were temples built for different gods and again we saw the trapezoidal doorways which mean it was a religious area. Still again they were not really sure of the history or origins of how they were able to make the structures. A lot of Japanese and Californian scientist visit these spots to find out more about earthquake proofing structures, since these buildings have sustained thousands of years of earthquakes and are still intact. After an hour of heavy hiking and panting we made our last few steep steps into the hands of the vendors who had ice cold Gatorade waiting. I think we would’ve paid anything for some cold drinks and as Mareike says “that’s some good economics!” [you have to imagine that being said in a shrill high pitched German accent.]

We were so hot after hiking, that the stones were a welcome relief

Pisac temple

Agriculture terraces

Finally we were off to eat— and with the curves and sounds of the roads, I was knocked out. I woke up just in time to jump off the bus into this quiet little oasis. The food was nothing to write about, but the view was nice with flowers everywhere, hummingbirds, llamas, and some other animals scattered about. It was a nice reprieve but soon enough it was time to visit our final stop of the day, Ollantaytambo.

View of the Urubamba or Sacred river

It is a quaint little village nestled, or surrounded, by large mountains and of course the Ollantaytambo fortress. We arrived quickly and in my haste I forgot the ticket to get into the site on the bus which was now parked ½ a mile down the mountain. Not only did I have to climb down, get the ticket, and climb back up, but there were even more ruins to climb. By this time I think it is only the coca leaves that gave me the insanity to keep climbing.

Stairs stairs and more stairs

Ollantaytambo entrance

View of the other side, to the lower right should look like an animal, see the face?

My mind stopped working at the 1,000th step so I can’t recall all of the details of this place. The interesting things are that they carved the stones from a mountain pretty far away and dragged them all the way back using a river, llamas, llama hyde ropes and lots of men. The stones that never fully made it to their intended resting places and were left just scattered about the grounds were deemed “rocas cansadas” or tired rocks. I guess they were too tired to move anymore…

View from the 547th step

Neat cactus on the grounds

After walking around for an hour, it was getting dark and time to head to the hotel, the Ollantaytambo Lodge. It was a quiet little place and off the beaten path. No Ritz Carlton but it fit the bill. We decided to go into town for some exploring and dinner, since there is nothing to do at the hotel. Once in the main square we noticed these murals locals were making with colored wood chips. They were beautiful with pictures of doves & crosses. I asked the guy what was going on and he informed me they were getting ready for a “pre-Easter” processional. We thought it would be neat to see so we quickly found a spot to eat at a pizzeria with a gorgeous view upstairs of the sun setting behind the mountains.

View from our hotel room

Easter festivities

We ordered a strange pizza with Andean cheese, greek olives, garlic, and tomatoes. We wanted asparagus but I guess it’s out of season. We took the edge off with some sangria and by the time the food and drink were gone, so were we… We couldn’t wait for the procession and stumbled are way back to the lodge. All in all it was a great day as we watched the mountains shadowed by the moonlight. I couldn’t believe it was only day 3, because it felt like we had done so much already. We went to bed looking forward to the private tour on day 4.

The alarm woke us up at 5:45am so we would be on time for our 8:45am flight to Cusco. They told us the only other way of getting to the area is by bus, which is a 24 hour winding ride – the plane ride was 45 minutes… we took the plane. At the gate we were encountered by officials that herded us away from the terminal when someone left behind a bag and a “bomb scare” of sorts resulted. It was sorted out eventually and we were soon on our way to the magical city of Cusco/Cuzco.

The flags of Cuzco and Peru Flying together

The entire flight Mareike was worrying about altitude sickness. I thought I might get a little dizzy, but told her not to worry- most of it is in her head. When we exited and went to pick up the luggage, Mareike saw a sign for “FREE OXYGEN”. I thought it was funny but she was serious. I told her we should go to the banos and think about it. Well… on the way to the bathroom we saw a man full on pass out with his eyes rolling into his head and he was on the floor. This only fueled her purchase of the “Oxishot” complete with carrying harness.

Free Oxygen!

OxiShot

My travel companion instantly started to feel light headed – as if she had just taken drugs and could not comprehend or walk or anything. I didn’t understand her problem because for once in my life, I was feeling fantastic. We arrived a short while later at the lovely hotel Prisma, only blocks away from the city center.

Our room at Hotel Prisma

We were told to take it easy when we first arrived to become acclimated to the altitude and also because we had a pretty physical walking tour that afternoon…But… we were hungry and did not take this advice. We had some coca tea (the best tea ever- I’ll talk about it later) and walked to the city center to take lunch at the main square. We ate at the Plaza on the second floor overlooking the bustling square, it was gorgeous! Mareike liked it so much she almost cried (I’ll blame it on the lack of oxygen, or the fact that she has been wanting to go to Peru ever since she was a little girl). We arrived in time for the Palm Sunday procession, military parade and a Tour Guide strike. It was quite an eventful morning! We played around a little more and then made sure we were back to the hotel in time for our tour.

Coca Tea

Palm Sunday and Military Parade

Lunch overlooking the square

The tour started out at Koricancha (or Qoricancha) and Santo Domingo. Qoricancha means “courtyard of gold” in Quechua. Also built was the Temple of the Sun, but was soon plumaged and destroyed by the Spaniards who built a church on top of the original earthquake proof structure. It looks just like it sounds, 2 different style buildings, one on top of the other. This seems to be the case in many places around Peru and South America. Our tour guide was very into his culture and pointed out the many misuses of words. The main misconception is that we call the ancient people of the area Incas or Inka. Inka actually means king. The correct usage would be quetchuan people. From now on I only refer to the culture of this period at Quetcha (which is spealled many different ways since this is a spoken and not written language).

Qoricancha

The next stop on the tour hit the main Cathedral where we had lunch earlier. Again no photos were allowed inside the church, similar to all catholic churches around. It also looked similar to other churches I’ve seen (I’m not a big church fan) minus the Easter décor. What WAS interesting about the cathedral were the paintings inside. Since the locals were used as laborers to build the church, they added a little bit of local culture and symbols into the architecture and art. The architecture consisted of a lot of quetchua crosses (the 3 step cross). Also, in paintings such as the last supper, guinea pig was served as the main dish, a local treat which we got to sample later.

Entrance to the Cathedral

Awesome cathedral in the clouds

I was tired of walking the church and happy when we left for our next stop- Saqsayhuaman (pronounced Sexy Woman) This was my favorite by far…at first because my feet hurt so much from walking on stones, that the soft grass was happily welcomed. Still after, the clouds parted ways and blue skies ensued to beautiful views of the city, wildflowers & amazing ruins. We laid down in the grass and listened to our tour guide speak of his culture and hirtory and theories of how those stones came to be there. Yet still to these days no one really knows…

Panoramic of the ruins

Lovely day for pictures

Wildflowers

Relaxin in the grass

Too soon time was up and were off to the next stops- Tambomachay and Kenko- where I drank from the spring offering me goodluck and twins, and used coca leaves to offer my heart to the heavens. It was pretty spiritual as the sun was setting to perfrom the ritual where you take 3 leaves in your hand, blow on them, hold them to the sky, then to your heart and say a prayer or wish. After this you chew on them which helps to energize and heal you. Coca leaves are very popular in Peruvian Culture and can be used for a wide variety of ailments and treatments.

Llama llama

Textiles for sale

Twins or good fortune?

Eating some local corn (it's HUGE) sittin on a rock

Local chewing coca leaves

Lastly we were dropped off at the folkloric center to watch traditional dancing. About halfway through our stomachs decided for us that it was time to leave, and we hiked back to the city center, so exhausted, but ready to eat and drink. We chose the Andean Grill to eat at, which turned out to be excellent, and ordered our first Pisco Sours. We had wonderful night views of the plaza and got serenaded by an awesome flute band. This was the first time tasting the infamous Pisco Sour, and boy is it good for taking the edge off! Mareike ordered 2 more, but I awaited the wine we bought back in the hotel room. I was beyond exhausted and sunburned (turns out being this high up makes it that much worse) After my first glass of wine I was passed out and ready for day 3.

Night views of the plaza