El Valle Sagrado

Mi nuevo amigo

Eatin' with the alpacas

An indigenous family in Pisac

Cuy comes with the head and all...
yup, I actually ate this

The week before last, we spent Friday on an excursion to the Sacred Valley.  All day we bused through the most beautiful scenery, stopping at various points to do the typical tourist things.  First we went to an alpaca and llama farm area.  There we did our fair share of both chasing the animals to get pictures with them, and running aware from them out of fear of flying spit.  It was both silly and fun.  We spent time at a market in Pisac a little further down the valley, and ate lunch in Urubamba.  It was here that I tried two new Peruvian delicacies – alpaca and cuy.  Alpaca wasn’t bad, but cuy tasted like what it is: rodent (guinea pig, to be exact).  Now I can say I’ve tried them both…and I’m done.  (Except I've heard there's an important plate in tomorrow's Corpus Christi festivities that includes lots of cuy...)

We stopped in a tiny town where a woman taught us the process of making chicha, the favorite Peruvian drink made from fermented corn. Next we climbed the ancient ruins of Ollantaytambo, full of both Incan and pre-Incan history.  Between Ollantaytambo and Chinchero, our final stop, we saw the most miraculous sunset from the seats of our bus.  It was as if fire hit snow along the wide, jagged horizon of the white-peaked Andes.  It was like no sunset I’ve ever seen before (even though I am partial to sunsets over water).  Finally in Chinchero, we learned about the process of making yarn from alpaca wool, dying the yarn and weaving beautiful products made of brilliant colors. 

On top of the ruins of Ollantaytambo

A little boy hanging out in the streets of Ollantaytambo

The women of Chinchero
teaching us about making yarn

Overall it was an awesome day of exposure to the rural Andean culture in Perú.  It was fascinating to experience the little towns full of women in their long skirts and braids, carrying animals on their back in their bright sacks and little kids running around, playing with each other in the streets and markets, not batting an eye at the tourists taking over their little pueblos.  I enjoyed one more look at Peruvian life that is much different than that in either Lima or Cusco.  

La vida bonita.