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Published: August 20th 2008
Pisaq market
There are over 30 kinds of corn in Peru. Here´s a sampling... The dark one is used for a tasty beverage with sugar, lime juice, and cooked corn mash. The white is the sweetest and tastiest (especially with fresh cheese -- who would´ve thought!)When we last left our heroine, she had just enjoyed a long overdue nap, and was blogging just before dinner. Since we're out here in the middle of nowhere, the choices for dinner are a little limited. Basically it's the hotel restaurant or nothing. As much as I usually hate hotel restaurant food and think it's crap, we gave it a go. It was fantastic! Edwin ordered the alpaca steak, I went with the more subdued chicken in elderberry sauce. Both were great! And we finally got to try alpaca (tastes just like steak but a little more tender). We finished it off with a nightcap of pisco sours (very strong ones) in the hotel bar, then turned in early. I had forgotten what getting 8 hours of sleep feels like. It was great!
After a decent breakfast (cooked eggs again! I´m on a lucky streak...) we were picked up from our hotel in a very nice toyota camry kind of car. It´s funny how my perspective has changed so that some crappy little car in the states was suddenly like getting into a porsche. We were dropped off in Pisaq an hour before we had to meet the guide.
mmm Alpaca
My travel husband trying the Alpaca at the hotel in Yucay. Pretty darn tasty! And then we had another 45min to look around the market. 2 hours in the top market in Peru. Not quite enough. Supposedly, according to my borrowed guidebook, the Pisaq market is the number 2 draw in Peru, after Machu Picchu. It was cool and all, but number 2?? dang. We saw lots of the same stuff at different stalls: lots of alpaca sweaters and scarves, silver jewelry, figurines, chessboards (they love their chess here apparently), antique things, and tons of other stuff. There was a small section for food and fruit. I didn´t really buy anything but was very tempted. They had the cutest little alpaca sweaters for little kids. I thought of my cousins Meem and Diann´s kids, but had no idea what size to buy, then realized I´d have to buy 3 for kids I didn´t know the size, then ran out of time. Sorry. I´m such a bad cousin. A couple of hours of wandering around the market and I wasn´t bored. Definitely a fun stop.
Next we boarded the bus and continued our sacred valley tour (there´s nothing sacred about the market, and we missed all the sacred stuff in Pisaq, but continued on
Yucay hotel
All of our hotels had these really nice little courtyards. Notice in the background their "gift shop" anyway). Our next stop was lunch. We drove through lots of farmland, with the river right next to the road. I think there´s only 1 road there, and the number of times I´ve been back and forth on it in the past couple of days, I think I started recognizing the people on the road. A very unique costume there though. The women wear their long black hair in 2 braids that are joined at the bottom about halfway down their backs. Along with a tophat looking thing that sits high on their head, it´s very traditional. They also have a classic skirt that is full and comes to around the knee, with a tucked in shirt and some kind of cardigan. Completed with some type of leg warmer and simple flat shoes, we might see this outfit on the runways in Peru at the next fashion show. A very simple but very identifiable dress. Lunch was actually directly across from our hotel in Yucay, which was kind of funny. It was in another hotel that is supposed to be one of the best places to stay in the area. The lunch buffet was pretty good too. Especially the desserts.
Pisaq market
I was getting a shot of the street, but the bonus was the woman walking up the street in the traditional cardigan, skirt, hat, and braids. They love their desserts here....or maybe it´s for our benefit. As I was up getting coffee I was again reminded of how dumb Americans can be when traveling. There was some lady there who couldn´t figure out what the carafes held, and even after being told which one had hot water, she poured the coffee then was asking which one was tea. With a full basket of tea bags RIGHT NEXT TO THE HOT WATER and lots of empty tea bag containers, she was really retarded. I´ve only run into a few really stupid people like that, but they´re undoubtedly American (or maybe Canadian). Out of all the foreigners... The only thing that made the lunch a little less enjoyable was the incredibly annoying and amazing loud Andean music playing right in our ears. At first you might think, oh how relaxing, what a nice flute, listen to the birds, is that an eagle? Then about 2 minutes later you´re like, ok that´s enough. How much do you want to stop playing? Edwin and I were shouting at each other across the lunch table over the irritating sounds of animals and flutes, and sighing relief everytime they took a break
between songs. Just as I was wondering who the hell was listening to this, some old lady was like, "oh isn´t the music nice?" Of course. Someone even bought a CD!! Yikes... It was an odd scene of crappy band guys, next to chair massages, next to an impromptu market in the middle of the hotel courtyard. At least it was a warm and sunny day.
We continued our tour, passing by the salt mines of Peru. If you ever see "pink Peruvian salt" in a store (which I have never) apparently it comes from there. A while later we arrived at Ollantaytambo, where we had actually gotten on and off the train before. This time we got to see the ruins there. After several days of Incan ruins, they all kind of start to run together. I find myself going, yeah whatver, another terraced hillside. Big whoop. I think I need an Incan break to really appreciate the architecture. It was cool though. They had some giant stones of pink granite that were brought there from another mountain 8km away. I can´t even imagine how. Another sun temple, more terraces, and cool Incan walls. We had to quickly
Pisaq market
Some of the minerals in the area used for painting, especially water color. The colors were so vibrant! I have another great shot that would make a nice screen saver if anyone wants it. I posted this one because of the old woman selling it -- thought it made a nicer shot. I don´t want to spoil the surprise mom, but I got you something... walk through the market, no time to shop, on our way back to the bus. We ended up with a group of people who are perpetually late. I wish I had known that because I would have taken the extra 15min to shop instead of sitting on the bus waiting. How rude.
We got back on the bus, and actually started dropping people off at their hotels out there. I couldn´t believe it. I felt like we just got on the bus and the tour was over? Weird. The way the valley is set up is with Pisaq to the far east, Urubamba and Yucay (lunch) next stop to the west, Ollantaytambo to the far west, then turn south at Urubamba on the way back to pass through Chinchero before hitting Cusco. So all the people staying in Ollantaytambo and Urubamba missed the last stop on the tour. Out of 16, only 6 of us were left for the last stop in Chinchero. This time we were at 12,000ft. We arrived just at 5, the perfect sun for pictures. I love it! We walked up the steep steps of the town to the only thing we visited (and I
more blankets?
I walked by this stand in the market and had to look twice. A little something extra right in the middle of the hats. haha think the only thing TO visit), the church. It was built on Inca foundations (like many buildings in this area) and is well-known because of the paintings on the wall and ceiling (like the Sistine Chapel). After about 3min in the church (that was plenty, it wasn´t very big) we split up for about 15min of free time before heading back. I wandered through the market fairly quickly to catch some great shots of the setting sun, but literally in about 1 min from the time I left the church to the time I walked about 50ft down the street, the sun had set behind the cloud and that was it for great light and shadows. Fortunately I shot a few pics before the sun left. On the way back down to the bus, I passed a little stand of a small grill with a woman making kebobs. It was alpaca meat, which apparently is very healthy for you -- much healthier than beef. Also much more tender. It was only 1 sol for a little skewer (on a palm leaf or corn husk, I wasn´t sure) with a grilled potato at the top. How cute! 1 sol is about
creative drainage
In the street in Pisaq. Kinda cool 30cents. It looked pretty well cooked, so I threw caution to the wind and went for it. It was AMAZING!! Whatever sauce they were putting on it, combined with the fresh cooked over hot coals, and the creative skewer on the stone road at dusk was the perfect combination. If I wasn´t still stuffed from lunch, I would have stood there for a while and just eaten skewer after skewer until I had dinner. It was incredible! My biggest regret is that I didn´t get a picture of it. Now my resolution is to take way more pictures. I´ve been slacking the past few days.
The drive back to Cusco was mostly in the dark, and we checked back into the hotel Picoaga (which is actually a 4-star hotel). This time I have a great room with 2 beds, a big bathroom, and even a bidet. I haven´t worked up the courage to actually use one of those yet -- I´m afraid of where the water will go! haha Too much information? I forgot to mention that for the tour, we used this Cusco tourist pass that´s good for all the sites around Cusco for 10days and costs about
lunch and a show
From our lunch table we could watch the crappy Andean band and right next to them were people getting chair massages. Weird. $40. Well, I had forgotten it with my bag in the hotel in Cusco so didn´t have it for the tour today. The tourguide was creative and gave me one that he was going to use for a tour tomorrow (in exchange for my ticket once we got to our hotel tonight). They have our names on it, but no one looks. So now I´m Nicole Pasternack, and a big thank you to Mr or Mrs Pasternack!
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Dad
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Oh, to be young enough to walk and see all that! Sure beats heck out of anywhere I've been.