Hotel Sauce Ollantaytambo

... What was most bizarre was seeing it grab a bottle of Powerade and procede to guzzle it.... Then the monkey had a go as well but was less proficient. Really odd.

Animal cruelty aside, it was quite an interesting stop. The woman who ran the place grew cacao and we tasted some of the roasted beans with honey (tasty!) and some pure chocolate (not so tasty - quite bitter, actually) and some coffee and she even had a marijuana plant...

After we'd rested and our guide ...

... Saw donkeys and cows along the way. At Moray we had a picnic lunch (sandwiches, fruit, and avocado from Adriana's garden). Yum! Then we hiked down the Moray bowl terrace. It was extremely windy, and the climb up was definitely a work-out. But cool. Then we were driven back to our hotels. We had to leave immediately to make it to Ollanyatambo before sunset. We really wanted to see the ruins there, but arrived right after it closed ...

... and we poured inside the old city which sits precariously on top of the mountain. Wow! We have seen many amazing sights over the course of our travels and some which have flattered to deceive. Machu Picchu however certainly lived up to and deserves its reputation.

The city largely survives intact as the Spanish Conquistadors never found it due to its being nestled 2,430 metres in the remote mountains. It is situated on a mountain ridge ...

... br>Apres tout ca, le village se desengorge et on finit par y qarriver mais un peu tardivement, nous avons juste le tps de visiter le site de Moray, avec ses terrasses concentriques, ensuite direction les Salines ñmais la nuit ns rattrape .
heureusement le taxi Subaru tunning nous ammene rapidement au dernier bus pour Ollaytatambo.
petit diner tranquil a l'hotel et dodo...

... a sign. The shortcut was easy with our flashlights-except when we arrived back at the railroad tracks we took a right instead of a left. Fortunately an early-bird farmer was awake and kind enough to point out that we were headed the wrong way. Beyond that minor detour, the railroad tracks were very easy to follow. There is only one set of railroad tracks which goes straight into Aguas Calientes so beyond screwing up the only turn like we did, you can’t really get ...

... day of hiking. There were 3 Inca sites on the way and one was bigger and nicer than the other. They all have different purposes like astronomy, farming, messenger posts etc and most all built high up in the mountains - the Incas didnt seem to know or believe in the easy way to do things. We had the afternoon to relax, take a shower and to visit the last Inca site before Machu Picchu that has beautiful views of the valley and from where you can see ...

... of tourists swarming the place. They talk about the classic Inca trail being THE trail to enter Machu Picchu, but I was thinking to myself that people who hike that trail only reach the entrance to the park after 8 in the morning, well after sunrise. So for that and for the fact we saw varied scenery - from snowy mountains to rainforest, I thought the Salkantay trek had to be better. The others in the group had disappeared, which I thought was ...

... ill. The one who focused too much on the “dangers” of Peruvian salad instead of the good food that was in front of her, looked like she was going to throw up any second. Soon enough her friend Jennifer yelled to the driver “Stop!” and then the door flashed open for Wendy to jump out to throw up on the side of the road. We listened to Wendy vomiting and waited patiently for her to get back on the minibus. The minibus had to make a ...

... detailed map of Inca trail can be viewed here. The orange line in the map below indicates the distance that we walked on the first day-hiking trip.
(Currently, all videos are at my other blog site.)