A Weekend Adventure

This weekend Ben, Kahler, and I embarked upon an adventure of sorts through the Sacred Valley (an area of small colonial towns and ruins about two hours outside of Cusco). Early Saturday morning Americo, a taxi driver, picked us up in San Blas Plaza and for the next two hours we winded down dusty roads listening to a strange conglomeration of American pop music and traditional Quechuan tunes. The rolling hills, patchwork farmland, and scraggly snow tipped peaks, provided comfortable landscape for my meandering thoughts. I enjoyed watching Peru from my car window, it is strange that women in completely traditional dress and livestock of any kind, donkeys, pigs, sheep, even llamas have become so familiar to me that I don't think twice when we pass them on the road. On Saturday, we visited Chinchero, Moray, Salineras, and Ollantaytambo. In Chinchero we climbed some incredibly steep cobblestone steps to see some traditional Incan terracing, and an ornately decorated colonial Catholic church that was being bedecked with flowers in honor of an approaching wedding. In Moray we hiked down a terraced ampitheater of sorts which Ben aptly named the Incan Coliseum. The travel book claimed that the ancients used the site as a laboratory of sorts to try different farming techniques at different elevations, but I am not convinced that it wasn't simply an ancient concert center. In Salinas, we saw hundreds of salt pans used to mine salt from a nearby salty spring. It was a strange sight, hundreds of little white pools full of coarse, shiny salt crystals. Ollantaytambo, is a quaint little colonial town that is one of the only cities that still looks as though it might have in Incan days, small cobblestone streets, water diverted through the main road for irrigation, etc. I enjoyed walking through its charming streets and among its impressive ruins. Atop a mountain near the city is an impressive stone fortress where the Incans took their last successful stand against the Spanish. It was a truly awe inspiring place. Ollantaytambo was a lovely place during the day, but after sundown, around 6:00 in Peru, it became quite a ghost town. So, we three simply returned to the small, clean, spartan hostel room we had found earlier and entertained ourselves with the limited non-electronic supplies we had been able to fit into our backpacks. This morning we explored the HUGE market in Pisac. The Sunday market there was incredible, tiny stands selling stuffed llamas, traditional textiles, pan pipes, ceramics, and more all for a "special price just for you" as far as the eye could see. We enjoyed walking through the labyrinth of stalls and bargaining with the vendors to buy gifts for friends and family, resting only to enjoy empanadas baked in a huge traditional "horno". The empanadas were "muy rico" but I couldn't help but be a bit disturbed by the cuy castle right next door. The squeaks coming from the guinea pigs that I knew would be sacrificed to the fire had a stifling affect on my appetite. It was a lovely weekend capped by two church services tonight, one in Spanish and one in English. I feel blessed to be on such a grand adventure and look forward to another week of work.