Sacred Valley

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This past weekend I headed to the Sacred Valley, first stop in Pisac. Me and Jessica arrived and settled in and then I took off to Lamay to hike up to Huchay Cusco. The hike was about 1.45hr uphill (maybe the steepest part of Mt. Si the entire way!) but the views were amazing! You could see miles and miles across the valley (the pictures dont do it justice). At the top there were tons of ruins and I walked around those for a bit before heading back down. It felt so good to get a good workout in and to get out into the mountains.

Pisac is a pretty small town and there isnt much to do at night, so we had some dinner (fresh trout), walked around, and went to bed. It is known for its Sunday market, which they started setting up at 4am! Melissa and Sabine met us here on Sun and we explored the market together. Its pretty big, but I dont think there is really anything there that isnt at the other markets all around Cusco. Around lunch time me and Sabine went off to the Pisac Ruins. These also were very high in the mountains, with great views, and was about a two hour walk around them all. We then headed to Ollantaytambo for more ruins. (We wanted to hit all of the ruins in the Sacred Valley in one weekend since you need your Tourist Ticket to visit them and it expires after 10 days or so) Ollantaytambo is another pretty small town, but with more tourists since it is generally the stopping point before people go up to M.P., which has made it pretty overpriced and not very exciting. In the morning we walked through the ruins and then got on another bus and went to Moray for our last set of ruins. These ones were pretty impressive, apparently they were built so that the Incas could test out how to grow crops at different mini-climates and altitudes so that they could grow them anywhere. We didnt take any tours of the ruins, and all I really know about them is what our guidebooks say (who knows how accurate that is), but I think I would be interested in doing some reading on them once I get home.

Two new housemates have moved in..Nick and Emma..both from England and they both seem very laid back and fun. We all went out last night to play Trivia at The Real McCoy and today we are finally going to hike up to the top of the hill with the Peru carving in the side of it!

This weekend I am off to Choquequirao, which is a four day trek, then two days to rest and a five day trek from Salkantay to M. P. Then I will be officially out of the house and out of Cusco. I have really enjoyed the city but four weeks here will definently be long enough.

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