The Sacred Valley

Wow what a train ride.....! But before stepping on the train for our ride back to Cusco we had one last meal at Indo Felix, no doubt the best restaurant we have encountered in our travels so far and probably in all of South America to come. We boarded the train stuffed, after the owner insisted that she treat us to dessert - I guess after having gone their for dinner two nights in a row then followed up with lunch she had a soft spot for us, as we certaintly had for her and her food!

To our surprise our seats on the train were 1A & 1B which meant we had the first two seats at the very front of the train with the conductor to the right of us. This resulted in having a 6x6 window which was awesome for viewing the scenery and other things.......Unlike our train ride to Machu Picchu a few days earlier the train was anything but cold and lacking entertainment. An hour into the ride, dance music sounded from the speakers and the waiter and waitress started into a fashion show showing off clothing made from al Pacca (It not only makes good clothes but if you can keep it down its damn good meat to!). The show lasted a good hour. All of the clothes modelled were of the warmer variety thus no skin and hence no photos. What happened next we could never of predicted. As the train speed down the tracks at a whomping 20km an hour (entire travelling distance is 108 km - time to travel 3.75 hrs) a huge black cow that I saw out of the corner of my eye jumped onto the tracks at the last second and KA BOOM we were provided with a Full Facial of a cow being smoked by a moving train. Wow the huge 6x6 window really paid dividends for this event!! After dragging the cow for some 15-20 feet the train came to a stop and several discussions pursued among the train staff. While all this was happening I was politely asked by the non-english speaking passengers, which was the entire coach, what happend. Well I made a MOO sound and then punched by open left hand with my right fist, they got the jist of what had happened. How´s that for a train ride? Never again will we sit anywhere on a train other than the front row seats!!

Yesterday we did a full day tour of the Sacred Valley from Cusco. The tour was great and really gave us an insight into the everyday life of peruvians outside of the main cities. We climbed as high as 13,000 feet where we visited a number of Inca ruins. The market in Pisaq was great and the highlight was convincing an old lady to allow me to take her picture. After showing the picture to her she went into a laughing frenzy for several mintues - from this point on I had no problems taking pictures at the market. After Pisaq we moved onto Ollantaytambo where a we climbed some Inca ruins, unfortunately the rain began to fall and I took a limited number of pics. We moved onto Urubamba for a buffet lunch where I again tried al Pacca - no issues this time. After filling our bellies we headed up to serious elevation to the village of Chinchero where there was a local market and monestary. We felt that we were on top of the world, as we looked down the sacred valley and several mountain peaks. The people that live in this small village are incredibly tough. Not only is it bitterly cold when the sun goes down but they are severly exposed to the sun during the day, so much so that their cheeks are so badly calassed and their lips chapped that we could only imagine they felt like cow hide. Again it was an awesome day and we are now in Arequipa after catching a quick 30 minute flight earlier this afternoon.

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