What. A. Day. (slideshow)
 
Our last full day in Cusco started at 7:30, with our breakfast buffet again at 8. We were picked up by our bus around 8:40. The bus had to go all the way around the plaza which we could see was already filled with all the tents of all the vendors. The bus got pulled over by a police who seemed to only want to harass the driver to prove he had all the proper documentation. After another delay to combine buses and wait for the tour guide, we were on our way out of town, past Sacsayhuaman, Q'enko, Puca Pucara and Tambomachay (all seen on the first day) and onto the Sacred Valley.

Our first stop was at a small market which I don't believe is even on the map. We wandered the stalls for a bit, used the rest rooms and pet the llamas and alpacas. Ruben tried on a couple of hats, and Lauren bought a sweater and a dingle hat for Elias.


Our next stop was on an overlook of the Sacred Valley and Urubamba river. We took some pictures and stretched our legs (and were approached by more locals hocking their wares).


Finally we arrived at Pisac and the market. There are ruins there, but apparently we didn't have a chance to go see them. Instead our tour guide, Sylvia, took us into to show us how to tell the difference between good silver and fake, good alpaca and stuff that's mixed with synthetic and where to get the best empanadas. We got to spend quite a lot of time in this market, which also included an open air food market where folks were selling a lot of fruits, vegetables and newly killed chickens. We had some good success at negotiations, and some were just ok, but overall we still felt like we did ok. One little faux pas was that Ruben decided to have a picture taken with some of the young kids and Elias and Lauren. After the picture was taken he gave them all one Sol. Apparently each person in the photo is supposed to get a Sol, but we only had 1 coin to give.

The kids in general are pretty heart wrenching and they know it. They run through the streets selling things - they're cute, they know how to sell. One later in the day even asked Lauren where she was from and when she replied "Estados Unidos" the girl replied "The capitol is Washington." The folks on Madison Avenue know nothing about marketing in comparison to these kids.

The next stop was lunch at Tambo in Urubamba. We can't seem to remember the restaurant's name, but we went down a road that had a sign that said "Arco Iris" and we seem to recall the word meant "abundance" in Cetchua. The restaurant was in a beautiful hacienda by the Urubamba river and served a buffet of different local salads, hot foods, etc. Of note: the chile relleno was very spicy, the trout ceviche (we dared to try) was really wonderful, and the rice pudding was some of the best we've ever had. We also had a corn pudding, which really was a kind of watery, purple gelatin. The small Pisco Sours were free for the adults, and Elias got a free lemonade.

After lunch we wandered down to the river side where there was a swing. Elias spent time swinging and we spent time chatting with Mina, one of the three women from Alabama we had been touring with the last few days. Hiking back up to the hacienda winded us all, even though we thought we were getting acclimatized.

Our next stop was in Ollantaytambo to hike the ruins. This was probably the most excellent part of the afternoon. We first paused by the two "doors" that Sylvia explained were the entrances from the Inca trail. Once again our bus driver somehow managed to navigate the incredibly narrow streets, avoiding pedestrians, dogs, and other vehicles. We parked and Sylvia explained the significance of the site, then we hiked up. And up. And Up. Now mind you this is at 2800 meters so we had to take the steep stairs s-l-o-o-o-o-w-l-y. We stopped half way up and Sylvia gave us a break by explaining more about the site and the architecture. Eventually we climbed to the top to where the Sun and Moon temples were - and the incredible views. After we were given 15-20 minutes to choose which way we wanted to hike down - we choose the longer way to hike down through another path, even though Elias was a little reluctant.

We thought about getting a coffee here: 











Once the group was back together, the bus took the long climb back the mountains to Chinchero, which is at 4000m. (On another trip we'd like to visit the salt fields of Maras and the ruins in Moray). Chinchero was where the girl really engaged Lauren with her knowledge of the U.S. capitol. We were then treated to a demonstration of how they make and dye the wool for their intricate hand weavings by some women who speak very little Spanish - our tour guide had to translate from Cetchua for us. Ruben walked up the hill to view the inside of the Church, and Lauren and Elias took a little longer to shop and saunter up the streets. It's a difficult climb for us "de la playa" when you're that high up and the locals will joke with you about it if you let them. Eventually they just waited outside the church and watched the townspeople as the kids played and the adults sold wares at another small market.

On the way back we were stuck behind a really smelly truck filled with corn and kids who were riding on top of the corn pile. The bus driver was obviously getting annoyed at the truck driver for not letting us pass. The young boy was obviously showing off for the bus. At one point he got up with a stick, broke the stick in half and waved them about. Then he saw three boys who were waiting for him by the side of the road and threw the stick at them just before they threw their sticks at him. The boy on the truck managed to nail one of the boys on the road square on the head. I'm not sure but I think all four were laughing. Finally the bus driver was able to pass and made some snide comment (in Spanish) about the driver of the truck.

Ruben's final comment on the tours was this: we had the perfect trifecta of tour guides: the shaman who was resentful of Pizarro bringing Catholic faith and usurping the local culture; the mystic spiritual who claimed scientific proof for the energy vortices that occurred around Machu Picchu; and the social activist who kept espousing people power to the Andean communities. It made it all so interesting.

We made it back to Cusco around 6:30 and had to avoid the plaza again. we were dropped off not near the hotel, but a few blocks away and needed to walk through the plaza to get back. That was a really amazing experience of sights and smells. There were so many things we weren't quite sure why they were being sold - particularly mosses, branches and colored powders. Elias so wanted to buy the fireworks, but we resisted.

We stopped at the hotel, then went back out to find a place to eat. We first tried to find the place where Ruben's friend Matt was eating called the Devine Comedia. We found it, but as it was an expensive French restaurant and Elias told us he had enough of Peruvian and fancy food, we decided to back track. He kept asking for Mexican food and although we weren't quite willing to quite cater to that whim, we were willing to go to Hannah's suggestion, Jack's. That was, until Ruben riveted on the blue glowing door of "The Fallen Angel" across the street from the Hotel Monestario and next to the Precolumbian art museum. With a name like that we had to go check it out.

This was probably the most interesting place for us to eat in Cusco. They had a limited Christmas eve dinner that included an aperitif, appetizer, main course, and desert for $30 US. One of the menu options was turkey and Elias was wiling to give it a try. He even tried the trout ceviche over a potato for his appetizer and although he didn't like the ceviche so much, he thought the potatoes were ok. Ruben had the mushroom soup and Lauren had the Andean salad to start. Ruben had the sweet potato ravioli for dinner, Lauren and Elias had the turkey and the drunken pears were served with lemongrass ice cream and a hard candy sugar "fan" decoration.

But better than the food was the incredible decor. Some of the six person tables had fish tanks in them. Many of the seats were faux tiger, leopard and zebra prints and opened up to hold a person's belongings. Some of the chairs were actually daybeds, with throw pillows of red and black latex hearts. There was a large glowing statue of Lucifer with medusa like hair in the middle of one room that had a really tall ceiling. From this ceiling was attached a red spandex aerialist "rope" that was attached out of the way to the side (we wondered when the aerialists came to do their shows). There were also tons of disco balls spinning, although none were lit. Our room contained the bar, behind which was a booth with DJ wearing a conductor's type hat spinning various tunes (fortunately nothing with a pan flute theme). Our room also contained a picture of two angels fighting and.... Flying Pigs. Yes. Flying pigs. Many of them. It was absolutely awesome. The waiters were all wearing shirts that said "Fallen Angel - Full of Pleasure" with little wings on the back.

On each table were three things for us: Paper crowns, a "present" that looked like and English "Cracker" which was filled with shredded paper, three paper streamers called "serpentinas" and a small ornament, and a bag filled with 10 sparklers. At one point we even lit some of the sparklers in the restaurant along with all the other patrons in the room. We left about 1.5 hours later and the place was packed.

We walked back to the hotel via the plaza again. Some kids set off a M80 really close as we walked by and it startled us silly. We were back at the plaza just before 9 pm, and stood on the steps of the church. Again we were approached by people selling things including a 12 year old girl who offered to have Elias hold her llama for a picture for a sol. The church was getting ready to start mass. We walked the length of the cathedral, then back through the booths as they were closing. This is where we really saw what the vendors were selling, or really what at this point they were packing up at this point.

The rest of the evening was spent packing and organzing and writing up trip notes. Ruben went to sleep early. At midnight the fireworks went off, and continued at least until 2am.