Perú...más días (because I´ve lost count)

Quick note - adjusting to a new keyboard layout is terrible. So pardon my mistakes and odd punctuation.

Last I left off, it was only day 2. So this could potentially be a very long post...then again I am about ready to murder this keyboard, so I´ll try and be brief.

Day 2 was our first day in Cuzco, and we were still acclimating. The next day we thought we´d take it easy so we could breathe and not get sick...so we went horseback riding, and I had possibly the most stubborn horse ever. Just a slow, mean thing that farted everytime it went uphill. Oy. We dismounted at the top of the hill and walked quite a ways along the road to several Incan ruins sites (earlier in the morning we had visited Saqsaywaman, whose name we only remember because it sounds like "sexy woman", hah), and oohed and ahhed over the beautifully preserved ruinations of a 12 million person civilization. Maybe I should mention that I was very impressed and all the ruins are very moving, but at the moment I´m running on virtually no sleep and am practically inhaling Deet, so pardon my brevity.

After we eventually got back from the ruins and horseback riding, we explored the city and markets for awhile (still breathing hard from the altitude), and tried tasty foods for dinner as well as dessert. Nolan and I even found a Peruvian version of Knockturn Alley to search for odds and ends.

Day 4 we took a taxi to Pisaq, which was a little market town in the next valley, part of the Sacred Valley. This was probably the largest market I´ve ever been to, and we filled up on souvenirs and gifts :) Then we headed to a bakery with a tv to watch the semifinals of the World Cup - Holland vs. Uruguay. While we cheered for Holland in the bakery, the rest of the town cheered for Uruguay in the rest of the restaurants and booths. Then we headed back to Cuzco, and Nolan and I explored a little more and found our first tasty Pisco Sour - the signature drink here. Then we turned in again for the night.

Day 5 took us to the Urubamba Valley, where we attended several hours of classes with the locals, who taught us the local agriculture and trade. We learned about and tried our hand at making chocolate (tasty!), farming guinea pigs, pottery, and beekeeping (where I was dubbed the smoke lady because I had to help the apiarist smoke out the bees!). Needless to say, we left with many tasty and neat things. Then we went to lunch, and sat and cheered on our respective teams in the other semifinal of the World Cup, Spain vs. Germany. And then on to our next hotel, a lovely little ecolodge where the entire garden was a maze and growing all sorts of interesting plants. That night, Nolan and I went off via mototaxi (a motorized version of a TukTuk), and explored the nighttime markets of Urubamba, and tasted our first anticuchos, picarrones, and Peruvian churros!

Day 6 opened with N and I heading to the markets again for some chicharrones (which weren´t ready yet), and some caldo de gallina (basically chicken soup). Anna and John were lucky and stayed to have some tasty coffee with the innkeepers, and then joined us later at the market. We eventually headed back for our luggage, and pressed on to the next town of Ollantaytambo. Here we took a tour of the magnificent hillside ruins (a fortress!), and walked the streets. John and I tried some cuy (guinea pig) for dinner, and it was impressively delicious! Anna and Nolan both had guinea pigs as pets at some time, so they couldn´t bear to eat it, but we loved it! Then we turned in for an early start the next day.

Day 7 we got up early to catch the train to the trailhead of Machu Picchu, and got off with our guide at Km 104 of the Incan trail. We hiked for about 7 hours total, up and up and up the Andean mountains, saw the beautiful ruins of Winay Wayna, stopped for a quick bite, and then finally we made it to the sun gate and a truly breathtaking view of Machu Picchu. When you see it for the first time after such a long hike, and then it is perched perfectly on top of the mountain in the sun, you see exactly why it is one of the 7 wonders of the world. Amazing. We got to walk closer and around the site a little before we had to head back for dinner and an early bedtime in the local town of Aguas Calientes.