This is a long one, amigos, so go get a cafe con leche and come back.
So this morning we're up early and ready to go. I said before we were abandoning all reason to start the hike, but really this day was spent mostly in a tour van making lots of stops in the Sacred Valley. Our group was 16 strong, with two Canadian couples, a whole slew of very funny Brits, one chick from Finland, and we rounded out the group as the only Americans. On the agenda for this first day of group touring was a tour of Sacred Valley, including several stops at pre-Incan and Incan ruins. Or at least that's what I think they were. Maybe they were all Incan?
Highlights of the day included stopping at a small village -though it's not really even big enough to call it a village- to see how Peruvian handicrafts are made. We stepped out of the bus and were greeted by these ladies, in traditional attire. Our guide, Juan, admitted that much of it was worn for tourists sake, but the bowler's looking hat you see in the top middle of the pic is a type of hat a Peruvian person would wear nowadays. The flat red hats are essentially out of date now.
These ladies wove the most intricate and beautiful cloths from llama, sheep and alpaca wool. At least I think alpaca wool. For some reason the details of this day are escaping me. We got up early, and I didn't have coffee...ya know. I was struggling.
Anyway, enough of my whining. The wool starts out like this.
And is then woven using the spool thingy into yarn. AS you will see in all future pictures, Juan the Guide gets really excited about the stuff he shares with us. Really. Excited. As a teacher I can appreciate that. Here his excitement and enthusiasm is well received. Not so much later when we see that excitement after 5 hours of climbing uphill.
So to get the undyed wool to look like this, it needs to get, well...dyed. And tell me guys, tell me...how does one dye wool with no synthetic dye?
Oh wait. Let's feel the wool first. Oooh. Soft.
Now we talk about dye. As you probably yelled out loud when I asked the question earlier-the wool is dyed using plants and other natural materials. Of course, you knew that.
Here's Juan, again getting very excited about what he's talking about. What is really cool is that one of the pigments on his hand is from a parasite that grows on the prickly pear plant. Later you will see that parasite smeared on my face. Yes, I'm serious. We didn't go to Peru to half-ass it.
But back to the wool. Using all the natural dyes we achieve this range of colors. Gorgeous!
And after a good twenty minutes of doing a little shopping at the ladies' stalls, we hit the road. A quick pit stop for a photo opportunity in Sacred Valley was next.
And then we were to a ruin. Not recalling the name of this ruin...but likely you don't care. It's old, and its a ruin, that's all you need to know.
Again, Juan got into his teaching mode, and we saw and absorbed all he had to share. I knew very little about the Incas before this trip, so all of it was new. He told us about the terraces, how working class people likely lived here because of the rustic construction of the buildings, and he also told us how people were buried.
Keith captured our learning. I think those glasses make me look smart. Smarter.
See those holes across the way, in the cliff? Those are holes that indicate someone was buried there. Bodies were put in the side of the mountain, and holes were made to place offerings to the gods.
Once we knew what to look for, we saw holes/gravesites as far as the eye can see. For some reason this, more than seeing the abandoned buildings, drove home how many people lived here. Don't get me wrong, the buildings are interesting, but I was not really making connections. To see grave sites though, that made it feel so much more real. I suppose I could make some connection to our own mortality and recognizing a grave site as a unavoidable marker to the fragility of our own lives, but truthfully it's likely the creepy factor that made me respond more to the grave sites than the buildings.
Anyway, Incan lesson is over, and we're given some time to explore. And explore we did!
A look-see up the side of the mountain, as we stop to gasp for air. At this point we were still fairly surprised that we were struggling to breathe while climbing a moderate hill. How quickly we adjusted our expectations.
A few more steps, a few more breaths.
And again, just a little breather, we'll use the excuse of a group shot here.
And then we explored the ruins. And got lost. Seriously. I'm not proud of it, but those Incans (pre-Incans?) outsmarted us. About 8 of us from the group were in a cluster of rooms together, and even with combined brainpower we still had the backpedal and retrace our steps. Pretty sure there was a different way out, we just weren't smart enough to find it.
And I'm OK with that.
Before we retraced our steps Keith took the opportunity to hold up a wall. Or, let the wall hold him up?
And we're back on the road and stopped for lunch along the way. Outside of the restaurant, it was just your typical rural Peruvian scene. A man, a boy, and their donkeys walking past a Spanish style church bell tower with an Andean mountain in the background. All we needed was some Peruvian music and this could have been a movie.
Our next stop is where we learned about Chicha. What is that? I...nay...Juan will tell you soon. First, let's learn about this game I rocked at. This game is serious, as you can see from Juan having put his glasses on. I had a coffee at lunch, and remember the details from the rest of the day much better. No, I don't have a coffee problem. I could do without, I would just not be as smart.
So, we played Sambal. The object is to throw small heavy gold coins into the frog's mouth? See the frog? No? Get your glasses, like Juan, and take another look. Ahh, yeah, there is it. Other slots/holes on the board will earn you points, but not as many as the frog's mouth.
I'd also like to point out that you'll start seeing pics of our group members. Since they've not volunteered to be on this blog with its 10 regular readers (i love you all!), I am giving them each nicknames instead of using their real names. Next to Juan is James Dean, 'cause he travels alone. Not that he's a loner, but sort of.
So, we're divided into two teams, and Juan keeps score. Playing here is Mountie CSI. She's from Canada, you figure the nickname out. Seated is Good Vibes. Really, he's just nice, puts out great vibes.
And a few turns later, it was Keith's turn. He scored a big fat nothing. I do not point this out to be mean, but merely to show the huge contrast in how he performed...
...compared to how I rocked the game. Smiles is looking on as I play. I scored 4,500 points in my turn, Keith scored nothing. No-thing.
Please humor me as I revel in this one, single time that I beat Keith at a game that requires accuracy and skill. He normally kills me.
But not this time! My team won. Bueno, amigos.
On my Sambal high, and we're moving on to learn about chicha. It's fermented corn drink.
Yeah, I also thought exactly what you're thinking now. It doesn't sound good, but it's not bad. It's like a Peruvian homebrew, just made with corn. On the left you see Chicha originale, the yellow stuff, and on the right it's chicha with strawberries. Chicha fresa. We tried both, and both were decent.
After tasting the chicha, Keith led the charge back to the Sambal table. I fully anticipated this, since I know how he does not like to perform poorly in a throwing game, and sure enough, he threw those damn coins until he got one into the frog's mouth. I think James Dean also landed one in the frogs mouth.
Let it be known that this is no way takes away from the fact that I outperformed Keith in the official game. We will be gray-haired grandparents, and its likely I will still be telling that story. I take what I can, you know?
But our day is not over yet. We made it to a very cute village of Ollantaytambo, the site of a not-completed, but abandoned sun temple. The Incans abandoned it as the Spanish invaded the country, but much of the ruin remains on the hillside, and also in foundations of the village's buildings.
Look how easy it looks to climb all those steps. Look, loads of people are already doing it! Here we go.
And, then we rest to catch our breath.
And we look across to the other hill to see a food storage building, also built and used by Incans. It's insane how these buildings are built onto such steep hillsides. The pictures really do convey the true distance or angle of the hill.
But enough of a rest, let's all head up the long staircase to talk about the temple construction. Here's the group, heading up the steps. See me in my sassy new green jacket about in the middle? I'm in front of British Tom Cruise and behind Ipod.
We paused, reflected and learned more about the history, construction of the site. And then headed back down the steps.
And after a great dinner at the Blue Puppy, where we realized the Canadian Mounties (CSI and Biker) also had twins (twins really are everywhere now), we retired to our lodging for a last night sleep on a bed before the hike began.
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