"Haku, haku!" - The Sacred Valley

Our tour of the Sacred Valley was wonderful! Josh and I met our bus and charming tour guide, Beto, on Avenida El Sol at almost nine on Sunday morning. There were a few other Maximo Nivel volunteers on our bus, and, fortunately, it was an all-English bus (so Beto didn't repeat everything in both English and Spanish, like at Lake Titicaca - it can be interesting at first to test your Spanish skills, but after a while it gets verrrrrry tedious). After making a few stops to pick up more passengers, we made our way up the mountain and out of Cusco. The views were fantastic the whole way! We wound through little Andean villages (and attempted to take pictures, to no avail) as we headed toward Pisac, our first scheduled stop, which is well-known for its extensive craft market. Before we arrived in Pisac, we made a stop at a smaller market where everything was handmade in the nearby town. We had twenty minutes to look around this market, and Josh and I began our gift shopping, though our first purchases were beautiful alpaca sweaters for ourselves!

Once in Pisac, we hit the ground running and found and haggled for almost all of our needed gifts! We're really excited about our purchases. We had forty-five minutes to shop in Pisac, and it was a whirlwind. I'd like to go back, if we have time, to wander and shop leisurely, rather than check specific items off of our list. As Beto says, Haku haku! - something like "come on," or "let's go" in Quechua.

After Pisac, our next stop was through Urubamba for a delicious buffet lunch at a beautiful restaurant. Josh and I tried alpaca, which was actually pretty good! We still need to sample some cuy (guinea pig) - very popular here - as well as ceviche. With less than two weeks left, we'd better get cracking! Once we'd eaten, Josh and I wandered around the restaurant's grounds. The backyard had a tranquil view of the river and of the restaurant, and llamas grazed, unfazed by the tourists.

Fed and refreshed, our tour group headed toward Ollantaytambo, a picturesque city with famous Incan ruins that is a stopover point for many tourists heading toward Machu Picchu. If I were to live anywhere in Peru, I think I'd live in Ollantaytambo! The ruins there show houses, farming terraces, and the remains of an unfinished temple. It was never completed because Pizarro invaded Ollantaytambo during the temple's construction in the 1500s. Huge boulders still lie where the Incas left them, never moved since the work was in progress. It's really a breathtaking sight, (and a great warm-up for Machu Picchu!) though, as always, pictures cannot capture the impressive sights.

Our next stop was supposed to be the Incan ruins at Chincheros, along with a weaving demonstration, but we hit some traffic, and dark fell. When we reached Chincheros, Beto asked if we wanted to take a look around anyway, but without being able to see anything (and with the cold mountain weather looming outside the bus), we voted to head back to Cusco. I'm sure the ruins would've been amazing as well, but we had a great day all in all. The tour of the Incan Sacred Valley was a cool one. Next stop: Machu Picchu!!