Country Roads

Our local tour guide Nanci and driver Christian picked us up this morning and we were off to the Sacred Valley (the area around Cuzco that has many ruins and is an area for a lot of agriculture). First stop-Ccaccacollo (don´t ask me how to say it), a local community where we learned about how the Quechua women make the traditional weavings. This stop included our first up close adventure with llamas and alpacas (you might ask, ¨Elizabeth, what is the difference between an alpaca and a llama?¨ Well, turns out they are very similar but alpacas have a shorter face and fur all the way down their legs. Llamas do not.) We learned about the natural ways the women use plants, beetles and even fermented human urine (yes, you heard me correctly) to make all sorts of different colors.

Next, we took an anxiety inducing dirt road back the side of the steep mountain to a just as scary paved road that led us to a beautiful scenic overlook. We munched on toasted fava beans the Quechua women had given us as we drove. We drove through the town of Pisac and up a nauseating, winding road to the Pisac ruins. As we looked up on the huge mountains, we saw rows of agricultural terraces along some of the steepest parts of the mountain. It was utterly unbelievable.

Just as I thought Kiley was going to pass out from motion sickness, we arrived at the top of the mountain and got out to walk around the ruins. When we stepped around the corner to see the ruins in full view, I nearly lost my breath. I could not believe how these ruins were ever built up here, particularly considering the size of the massive stones that were used. Pictures just could not capture the sight.

After walking around and learning about the ruins from Nanci, we headed back down into town to visit the Pisac market. There were many stalls with fruit, vegetables, and handicrafts. One of the first women we ran into was this old, Quechua woman dressed in traditional clothes with pink peonies all over her brimmed hat. She had a happy smile and some cooky eyes and was spinning yarn up and down on a spinner. We immediately had to take pictures of her after which of course she asked for several soles (the money in Peru is the nuevo sol). We continued walking around and encountered several other women and girls dressed up asking for money to take a picture with them (the first of hundreds we would later encounter throughout our trip). Kiley bought a beautiful alpaca blanket and a cute Inca Cola shirt. (Inca Cola is a highly popular soft drink in Peru, though I can´t entirely figure out why because it is this bright yellow color and tastes like bubble gum. One sip was all I needed for a life-time)

We hopped back in the van for a short drive to our lunch spot. We ate at this beautiful old house called Alhambra Hacienda Restaurant for lunch. There was a band playing traditional Andean music and it was very relaxing. We ate under a massive thatched roof gazebo and looked out over the beautiful garden. Carlos was the name of the red macaw that lived in a tree house in the garden. We sampled many Peruvian dishes including some popular desserts like a purple corn pudding. Kiley and I agreed how happy with our trip we were so far and how GAP adventures had not done us wrong.

Next stop-Ollantaytambo (yes, I finally did learn how to say this one). We visited more ruins that had even larger rocks than the first. These walls were put together so seamlessly that they looked fake. I thought if I touched them they would feel like those styrafoam walls that you might find at Disney World or Las Vegas. Turns out the rocks did not even come from the mountain we were standing on, but rather they came from across the valley. I just cannot understand how they moved these rocks that are larger than cars.

As we left Ollantaytambo, there was a procession beginning in the town. I never did figure out was the festival was for but it was something to do either with a stage of Jesus´s life or a special saint of the the town.

One the way to our hotel, we had to stop and try some chicha. This is corn fermented beer that dates back to Incan times. You can tell a place that serves chicha by the red flag (or red plastic bag in this case) that hangs outside of the door. We entered the dark room where a old woman was sitting by three huge clay jugs. I think she had probably been there for decades. The glasses they normally serve chicha in are over-sized glasses bigger than I have seen in any bar before. Luckily, she pours us little shot glass size of the chicha. Nanci informs us that before you drink it, you have to pour a little out on the ground for the Pachamama (Mother Earth). After we do this, we toast and try it. Fully expecting to want to spit it out, I was pleasantly surprised by the mild corn beer flavor. Not bad. Next, we tried the strawberry flavored kind called fruitillada. Tasted a little like a strawberry smoothie (fruitilladas will enter the story again later tonight).

Next, we played a popular game similar to washers, but much more regal as the things you toss are gold coins and you are trying to throw them into a golden frog´s mouth. The game is called sapo and I can imagine many Peruvians playing this game while drinking much chicha...getting better after the first glass or two, but downhill after that...similar to when I play darts at home.

We also had our first guinea pig sighting here! There was a dirt floor room full of them and they were all running around making the little guinea pig noise. It sounds like a high pitched ¨cccuuuyy¨ (thus, found out why they are called cuy here...ha!)

Off to what turned out to be my favorite hotel of the whole trip. It is located just outside of a town called Urambamba. The hotel is a former monestary and is called San Augustin Hotel Monestario de la Recoleta. It was beautiful!

Shortly after we dropped our bags and walked around taking many photos, we heard band music coming down the street. Kiley ran out the door and yelled, ¨come on!¨So I followed quickly and ran out of the hotel door to see about 100 Peruvians watching some 20 singers and dancers dressed in traditional clothes. The festival from Ollantaytambo had come to us!

We stood watching the dancing for several minutes and were quickly offered some fruitillada (remember the drink from earlier). There were large foaming barrels of it and men walking around with large pitchers pouring some for everyone in sight. Not wanting to be rude (and sort of excited at the same time) we took a glass, toasted with the locals next to us, and took a sip. Whoa! The first minute it touch my lips I suddenly realized what a horrible idea it would be to actually drink this stuff. Who knows where it had been and who knows what kinds of awful things it would do to my stomach. Yikes!

Thus, after a few minutes of fake drinking it and the local guys next to us telling us to drink it all, we decided to go back to the hotel courtyard and pour some out. Well, you know it was a bad idea to take some when we walked back into the hotel lobby and the Peruvian receptionist grimaced and shook her head quickly when she saw what we were carrying. The thought was still really fun and made me think about it just added to our adventures!

Our next adventure--dinner! Well, we thought it would be simple enough to take a taxi into town and get some dinner at one of the two restaurants recommended in my Lonely Planet Peru guide book--wrong! Both restaurants closed. Of course the taxi driver knew another place and dropped us off before I could really think about what was happening. Don Amilio´s was the place and when I say we were the only people there, I mean we were the ONLY people there. This probably wasn´t good. What were we thinking!

The waitress and the manager were nice though and I think they were just happy to have customers (as were the two cooks I could see in the kitchen). We ordered some stuff we were not really sure how to translate, but we figured, ¨Why not?¨ We also thought, ¨if our stomachs can make it through tonight, we can make it through anything.¨ Kiley and I played sapo as we waited for our food (never played before and now twice in one day). Kiley proved to be very good at this game. I did not.

Food arrived and I had the first bad meal of the trip. Oh well, my percentage of good meals was nearly %100 so far, so I guess I can´t complain too much.

We survived dinner, the taxi ride back, and our stomachs miraculously didn´t hate us. We had another amazing day and experienced many things today that make up an adventure!

Country Roads, James Taylor