I woke up this morning at about 7am, showered and finished my last bit of packing. I had breakfast with my host family but didn’t remember I’d lost my keys until I saw Kris’s keys sitting near the dining table. This was right as we were about to leave, since we had to meet everyone at the Plaza San Francisco (near the Plaza de Armas) at 9am. Worst timing and worst news possible. Since my host mother is a worrier, I knew that she would freak out at the news, but I didn’t realize just how grave my error was until my host father was visibly nervous, too. Apparently, since it fell in the cab, it’s very easy for the driver to know whose house the keys belong to. Anyone can just pick them up and enter the house. They also have a special door that’s very different from any surrounding houses and was specially made in the states. I had 250 soles on me and debated leaving 100 with them, but since they didn’t specifically ask for money, I decided to wait. I will probably hear from Amauta School and expect to be in some trouble, but we’ll see how that goes. Right now I’m much more concerned about seeing incredible ancient ruins and having over a week of traveling with no classes.
So, after an awkward and depressing goodbye to my host family, Kris and I took a cab to the plaza and we all left by about 9:30 for Moray. The ride there was gorgeous!
So, back to Moray...Constructed at the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th century, this ancient ruin consists of an irrigation system that still works today. Consisting of vast, circular terraces, it’s an agricultural site where the Incas simply experimented planting different crops.
Afterwards, we went to the salt evaporation ponds (or mines) of Maras, another town in the Sacred Valley. Here's a pic of the town...
The villagers obtain the salt from a local subterranean stream, and we saw the natural spring where the salt begins. The water gradually runs down a few hundred terraced ponds that the workers carefully monitor. It is believed that the salt system was created in Inca times or earlier. As the water evaporates from the ponds, the salt precipitates and leaves crystals along the mines.
We sampled some of it and it was really good (as far as salt goes). I walked for about 40 minutes down the hill to take pictures and get a better look at the mines since it was such an impressive site, while others took the bus.
We all met up and drove a few minutes to a buffet for lunch. The food selection was much smaller than the first buffet but everything was very tasty, too. I had beet salad, orange chicken, green beans and more, and sampled a few types of desserts.
I walked around the grassy area of the outdoor restaurant after and saw a parrot that could say, “Hola.” (Though in my video, he just wanted to say "Waddup")
And this picture is also from the outdoor area of the restaurant... unrelated to anything here, but it's beautiful so I'm posting it.
After, we drove to Ajha Wasi Inka Bar, a special type of bar where they process and sell chica, the popular fermented corn beverage here (2% alcohol).
We all sampled the plain chica, which tastes like a mix of beer and vinegar (the only person who liked it was Tyler, who ordered a big glass afterwards.) Then we tried the chica fresa (strawberries), which was neither good nor bad, just interesting. I was thirsty and it was pretty refreshing, so I had a few tastes of it. Our guide really enjoyed the chica and proceeded to chug a whole glass of it.
The bar also had a little barn room of guinea pigs (I have yet to try the popular cuy here) and an outdoor area of Frogs. The game is very similar to washers and a lot of fun.
Afterwards, we returned to Ollantaytambo to wait for our 7pm bus ride to Aguas Calientes, also known as Macchu Picchu town. We went to what we were told was a “typical” family house to see how people there lived. However, when we got there, we saw a barn room with some guinea pigs being fed while others were dead, being placed in boiling water to make their fur easy to peel off.
I wish someone had given us some warning to what we were about to see, but I guess guinea pig is a fine cuisine here and, in many ways, our little tour was very typical. And at least we didn’t have to see them being killed, which Peruvians do by breaking their necks since it’s a very quick and painless death.
After that little adventure, we had some time to walk around and do some shopping, so I got a hat and gloves for our cold trip to Puno. I also bought snacks for Macchu Picchu and a glass of hot chocolate. We got on the bus at 6 and drove about 5 minutes to the bus station, where we had a 1 hour 40 minute trip to town. We arrived at Aguas Calientes and walked to our nearby hotel room. There, we found the rest of our group waiting in the lobby. They had a long, dangerous, physically draining but also incredible four day trek and were happy to see us. We discussed plans for the next day and decided to meet in the lobby at 3am. Rachel has been to Macchu Picchu before and told us that in order to climb Waunupichu, a larger mountain with a great view of the ruins, we needed to leave very early since only 400 people out of the 2500 daily tourists are permitted to climb it. We also wanted to make sure that we got there in time to watch the sun rise.
I shared a hotel room with Amy and Natalie. We showered and packed a small backpack for the next day, and I was able to go to sleep by about 11pm, telling myself I would take a nap and wake up for an unfathomable adventure.
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