World Peru Cusco Pisac

Jen's Peru Adventure 2007

Sacred Valley Aug 28, 2007

Well, since I am writing this, it means I survived the Inca Trail! What an adventure the past five days have been. We arrived back in Cusco last night.

I will attempt to recap the most incredible experience of my life over the next few entries.

Tuesday morning we headed out early to The Sacred Valley of the Incas, and eventually, our base camp for the Trail. Our first stop was the ruins of Sacsayhuaman, or as it is more affectionally known- Sexy Woman!

We then drove down lower into the Sacred Valley (which I have to point out, that because I was still having altitude problems, any drop in altitude at this point was a blessing!). We explored the ruins of Pisac. They were incredible. We are really lucky, because our guide is REALLY good. He is a local from Cusco, so he grew up here. He is an Inca decendent. He is University educated, with degrees in Civil Engineering, Business and Tourism, AND history. He speaks many languages, but his main language is Quechua, which is the language of the Inca empire, until it was outlawed by the Spanish in 1780, and is mostly spoken here in the high Andes. It is mostly what we hear here, which makes trying to use a spanish phrase book useless!

We stopped at an Alpaca and Llama center, so we could feed and pet them. They are really cute- we had a lot of fun! We watched local woman make clothing and blanckets out of the wool.

We ate lunch then drove down into Ollantaytambo. We dropped our stuff at our hostel, and headed out to explore. Cesar showed us more ruins- a fortress of the Incas. I honestly can't remember the name- after you see the next four days- you will understand! He took us to a house of someone he knew so we could see how the real locals live. It was incredible. It was a one room house with a courtyard. There was a cooking area and sleeping area- and about 30 guinea pigs running around!! They were so cute- we were all picking which ones we were going to eat for dinner! :)

We ate our last dinner before we start the trek. Pastas and Pizza- because they digest easily at high altitude. At this point, I still have no appetite, but forced two pieces of pizza down. We went to bed early because tomorrow is another early morning!