Day 2

Today we began to do the real touristy stuff around Cusco. There are a ton of ruins nearby and we had purchased a private tour around them from the guide group we are doing the Inka trail with. They picked us up around 9 in a large van. Our tour guide Will told us that we'd be looking at a few different ruins nearby.






We quickly get out of town and start climbing into the hills. We took a quick stop to look out over Cusco. Our first stop was going to be an alpaca and llama petting zoo. We hadn't seen any of these guys yet, so we were excited for it. Megan and I fed a few of them. They love alfalfa and would come right up to you to eat it. They were also pretty aggressive. Once they bit down, they would jerk their head to pull a lot of it out of your hand. I guess they didn't want to get nickle and dimed and wanted all the food at once.


Megan really liked the "special" alpaca who was grinning all the time. We also learned a lot about how they make alpaca wool. They showed us the different organic materials they use to make natural dyes. Most of the stuff we saw for sale in the markets and everything used non natural dyes and as such was a lot brighter and usually worse craftsmanship. We also got to see them knitting the wool and how much time it took to make the blankets / scarves etc. At the end they took us to the store that benefited the families who owned the alpaca place. We took a look at a lot of the stuff which was all really nice, but super expensive (even by US standards)







Now that we finished there, it was time to start touring ruins! WOOT! The first set of ruins we went to was Pisac. The Inca's loved their terraces. Most of the terraces they used for agriculture but they also would occasionally use them as structural support. They were super smart and figured out that by using these terraces and facing them east, they could vary the temperature by as much as 5 degrees per terrace and grow different crops on the different terraces. they also had these agricultural testing facilities where they would test to see which crops grew well at particular temperatures and wetness etc.


After checking out the ruins, we then went into town to get a snack and also take a look at the market in Pisac. Megan was SUPER excited about this because she loves street vendors and shopping. While most of our group stopped for empanadas (meat/cheese stuffed in dough and baked), Megan, Julie and I went shopping. Megan and Julie bought a ton of yarn so they can start knitting alpaca. We also got a few other random things there. They have a ton of textiles for sale and everyone has something similar. I liked bargaining with them. If you don't like the price you are getting, move on. Basically my rule of thumb became that I wanted 2/3 the price of what they wanted. If I couldn't get that, I would go to someone else.


After the market, we had an hour or so long drive to our lunch place. It was a fairly touristy buffet restaurant. They had ceviche, chica (corn beer, although I think what we got was the non alcoholic version), and tons of other stuff. You will see on the picture we all have bottled water. That is because you can't drink the tap water in Peru unless you wanna get super sick. I had a little of everything there. It was nice to taste all these different things, but I didn't think anything was particularly good. It was a little overpriced (at 11ish USD) for Peru, but what can ya do when that is the place your tour takes you?

After lunch, we went on to the ruins at Ollantaytambo. This was the location of the only place the Incas defeated the Spanish. It was easy to see why. The steps were all really steep and funneled intruders into small corridors. Even with superior technologies, the Spanish couldn't take it. The Incas ended up retreating later. This is another good example of terraces. The Incas would divide towns up into 3 sections: urban, agricultural and cemeteries. Here on the right side you'll see the holes in the cliff. Those are the graves. In the middle is the terraces which makes up the agricultural part and on the left side is the urban side with the unfinished temple of the sun. There were giant rocks at the top which were still waiting to be moved into position.

At this point it was starting to get dark. It got dark around 6 pm sadly (stupid winter). We had one more set of ruins to visit and a fairly decent drive. At this point, my friend Tom was really starting to feel sick. He hit the bathroom a few times, I think we had to pull over once for him on the way over. Then when we hit the next ruins (Chinchero) he spent the whole time in the bathroom.


We got to the ruins and looked around some, but it was pretty dark. We had 20 odd minutes to ourselves, which Megan used to buy more stuff. Our group ended up buying a bunch of stuff from one vendor who gave our guide a free hat. He didn't want it and handed it to me. No sooner do I get it in my hand, then Megan snatches it to use for the hike. We had to stop a few more times for Tom on the way back home as he was really hurting and the ride was bumpy which couldn't have been helping.

We got back to the hotel around 7:30/8 and took some time to freshen up. A bunch of us met up to go for dinner at around 8:30. We looked up a restaurant in the Lonely Planet book we had with us and set out to it. Unfortunately, the map in our book was terrible and only had every 5th or so street. We managed to get to the restaurant we wanted which was MAP Cafe. Unfortunately, they didn't have any tables for us and they suggested Ciccolinas (I think) Since MAP looked awesome, we made a reservation for the next day for our whole group. After spending another 20 minutes getting to the next restaurant (which also looked good), they also didn't have a table for us. They suggested Pacha Papa which was supposed to have a lot of seating. By the time we got there it was 9:45 and they were closing.

We were pretty hungry, frustrated and grumpy. We made our way back to the main plaza and took a look around. There were tons of people suggesting various restaurants. In Peru, the restaurant pays people to get you and bring you into their restaurant and they take a commission on it. We took a look at a few places before this one guy convinced us to go with him to a restaurant. We walked up, but it was in this super sketchy alley and its menu was short and had a "healthy section" and "Unhealthy Section". We turned around and headed back to the main plaza and went to one restaurant which was a little pricier, but still nice.

Dinner turned out to be awesome. Megan had a pumpkin soup she really liked. I had alpaca probably or something. I was so hungry at that point, I don't really remember. We had a good bottle of wine also. I hope Eric has pictures of the wine, because he did a really awesome job taking pictures of the restaurants we went to.

Megan was tired, so I walked her back to the hotel and checked in on Tom who luckily wasn't dead. Then Mark, Eric, Adam and I headed out to the bars. We tried another Irish pub right on the plaza. This pub was smaller, more expensive, and had worse beer than the other place. So of course, this pub was packed. We talked to some girls from the US who had just moved to Peru to work at a nonprofit to help get Peruvian women into sports. Apparently it is normal for Peruvian women to get married and stay at home and not be seen out much or have social lives. (this is all from them, not my words) We did have a fantastically terrible round of beer while there. So naturally, when Eric went up to get another round, he assumed they had given us the wrong thing and ordered a 2nd round of the beer. It was equally terrible. I drank a little and then went and got a round of Cusquenos.

While we were having this fiasco, we started talking some folks who had just finished the Inca trail and were a mix of Dutch, Australian and some others. They were celebrating the end of the trail and also one of the girl's 30th birthdays. We drank with them while they explained to us what a rich and developed language they have. All I have to say about it is they taught us what swaffle is. Look it up on urban dictionary and I imagine it'll be there. If not, ask me and I'll tell you a good story about it. We headed home after the bar closed. Some of them were going to a dance club, but we were pretty tired and wanted to get some rest since tomorrow would be our last day in Cusco before the trail.