Sacred Valley

This weekend we journeyed through the Sacred Valley tourist hotspots. It was a gut-busting couple of days that included a little nausea, some fantastic views, and several long but incredibly inexpensive bus rides. In the last couple of days we combined excursions out to several ruins with a local Carnival that celebrates the local patron- San Sebastian who was a Roman advocate of the poor killed by the Spaniards in this part of Peru hundreds of years ago.

Both Saturday and Sunday began with breakfast at home (the small loaf of bread and fried egg that we have now become very accustomed to) then a short taxi ride to the bus station. We combined bus and taxi rides to arrive at several incredible places that included Chincheron (ruins overlooking a river, very peaceful), Moray (circular ruins that may have been used for ancient games or agriculture), Maras (antique salt baths), and finally Ollantaytambo (an ancient Inkan fortress city with a small market in the plaza). We hiked quite a bit with determination to see every last ancient rock in the valley and we ate very little... partly because we had only brought a little bread and cheese, partly because we were mostly walking in places where there was no food to buy, and partly because I was too ill to eat more than a few crackers (the bumpy, winding bus rides didn´t help!) We travelled that day with our friend Vanessa from Pennsylvania, Manchi (grandma), Fani, and her two twin babies. It was a wild and wonderful day in the countryside and entirely too impossible to describe in words. Children work hard here, they shepherd the sheep in the countryside and work in the towns to sell small trinkets, paintings, or a picture of themselves dressed up in traditional clothing. Saturday night we returned late, but mustered up the energy to eat some dinner then walk to the local plaza to see the fireworks. We had no idea that fireworks could be so interesting and scary! They had built several stands out of eucalyptus tree branches that held an amazing array of interconnected fireworks suspended 10 to 30 feet above the crowd and positioned smack dab in the middle of everyone. While music sounded from the live bands around the plaza, men lit the fireworks that would start a cascade of raining fire and trigger spiralling wheels of light; several even had constructed small bicycles that spun around with their wheels turning in flames of fireworks. Meanwhile, one-by-one other fireworks would blast into the sky, but not nearly high enough, causing each of us to dodge falling embers. Other people later lit fireworks that swirled directly into the crowd causing everyone to scream with joy and fear combined. People sold alpaca meat and potatoes on sticks that they grilled in the streets. A wonderful bonus of being awkwardly tall here is that we stand a full head above just about everyone so we can find eachother easily and have a good view of everything in front of us!

Sunday we again took off early by bus and taxi to another set of picturesque ruins in Pisac. This town has an amazing market on Sundays where we feasted our eyes on the many handcrafted items for sale, tasted fresh juice, and later spent many hours climbing the gigantic hillside to encounter the several sets of ruins. Again we returned later than expected, ate some choclo (corn on the cob with gigantic kernals) with cheese and headed to the plaza to see the last of the celebration. There, we saw many dances of people in outrageous costumes (all colorful, many beautiful, and some down right scary). During one dance of the apparently intoxicated and masked men, I made the mistake of staring at them as they passed by instead of ducking away like the locals near me. I caught a good blast of espuma (foam) into my eyes, and had to laugh at the craziness of it all! I later found out that it is something of a complement to get blasted in the face by the dancers... go figure!

Today, we are back to taking classes today and visiting the main part of Cusco, where we now feel so at home... Aunt Brenda, I hope you had an amazing birthday and we can´t wait to hear about the family trip! Love you all, Melissa & Cullen