Day 2: Sacred Valley -- Ollantaytambo & Chinchero

 This morning we woke up and breakfasted at the hotel, then we hit the road again.

 

Then it was off to Ollantaytambo, a town (where our guide's father was from!) and archaeological site. We started in the winding streets of the town, where Incan stone walls were topped off by Spanish walls and tiles.

Then we went into a store/someone's house and they were guinea pig breeders. There were tons of them, making video-game chirping sounds. They are sold for food eventually (very hard to conceive of them as food when we are used to them as pets).

^the woman who owns the store's niece was there, harassing the cats who live there, too

^The skulls of their ancestors to protect them. And a dead condor (the important Inca animals were condor, puma and snake) and a dead llama. Our guide said the condor and llama were fake but the skulls were real.

The temple behind us is the llama temple and it's supposed to have the shape of a llama. I found this picture online to try and understand it:

Then we saw Lucy Willner's relative in the street! She hopes Lucy is doing well:

Tributary from the glaciers above, those are original Inca walls beside the river: 

Amazing irrigation work by the Incas, still in use for crops: 

And then we made it to the Temple site!

^anti-earthquake architecture -- having that curve in the bottom rock means that the whole situation is much more stable

^our guide explaining that those protrusions from the rock were so that they could put tree trunks underneath to lift them into place

^Inca choirs would sing into these alcoves so that the sound was amplified during temple events

Here, on the way down, our guide said that she wanted to photograph us "touching the mountain," which sounded dramatic but came out like this: 

Then (surprise, surprise) Martin fell asleep on the way to Chinchero, another town and archaeological site.  

Except Chinchero is  at higher altitude--higher even than Cusco--making it the highest place we have ever been. So in all the following  pictures we were huffing and puffing and telling ourselves that it's time to up our cardio.

^This is something that the Incas would pour liquid into and depending in which direction it flowed out, they would have a yes or no answer to a question. Is that a confusing description? Yes it's because we only partly understood it. 

This next picture shows alcoves in which the Incas would place mummies of important people. And they would dress them up for special events. And if they relocated, they would bring the mummies with them. Our guide showed us the second picture so that we can see an imagined mummy-in-an-alcove--you are welcome for the nightmares.

Then we got some huge corn and cheese on the street -- incredible.

A viewpoint on the way: 

Then we went to Tunupa restaurant with our guide for lunch. It was very pleasant and had very beautiful grounds (see the following).

Can't have enough llamas!

Path from restaurant leads to Urubamba river-- the river that winds through the Sacred Valley.

^This llama appears to have given up.

Then we went back to the hotel for a rest. Sylvia finished her book so Martin can have his Kindle back. We hung out on these great hammocks while reading. 

 

Day 1: Sacred Valley

 It’s 11 short years later and we are back on the road, this time heading to South America for the first time.

We left our apartment cool calm and collected meaning Sylvia had had 3 crises about whether it was a good idea to take altitude medication and Martin's swimsuits had an “attempted delivery” which consisted of UPS calling our phones for one millisecond before deciding to deliver them tomorrow (too late).

We decided to roll our suitcases across the park via “little dog loop” in Central Park where we walk in the mornings, hoping to see some parting shih tzus. We did, and then hopped in an Uber to JFK outside the Met.

In the car, we Face Timed Sylvia’s parents. Her mother got very excited when she heard we were going to the “secret” valley. Except we weren’t-- we are currently in the sacred valley. She says she prefers secret valley, it reminds her of Harrison ford.

The flight NYC to Lima was the easiest flight of our lives, both immediately falling asleep before the acclaimed Emilia Perez could even start.

In Lima, we tried our best to get some walking in by making loops around the very small domestic terminal (attracting notice, Sylvia is very tall in Peru). Sylvia spent a good amount of time subtly stalking a woman to snap a picture of her small dog:

(worth it)

In that very same airport, we found a figurine of “the Willners bringing the passover stuff upstairs!”:

note the pots, silver, etc.

Then Martin passed out during the flight to Cusco and Sylvia read most of “The Bee Sting”, on his new Kindle. He has since lost privileges on his Kindle until she finishes the book, which is highly recommended.

We landed in Cusco and were greeted by really fun altitude headaches and dizziness, but luckily we had the following poster to distract us: 

We then met our driver, Noe, and our guide, Yanet, and then made our way to the Sulca textile museum. 

This was a baffling experience with a guide who spoke Spanish at an appropriate register but for some reason spoke English at the highest pitch we have ever heard. She also crushed a bug in front of us, which was scarring, explaining that they use its blood? Entrails? for red dye. It was more of a shop than a museum, and there was also a very disturbing stuffed dog (the museum’s dog, who they loved).

The highlight of sulca textiles was getting to feed the alpacas and llamas and other varieties of that kind of animal:

Then we got some snacks-- among them coca toffee-- to help with the altitude. We then drove to the Sacred Valley, stopping at several scenic viewpoints along the way. One of them showed us a smaller valley of indigenous farmers here—growing corn and quinoa. We were also shocked to learn that the terraces in the mountains are left over by the Incas, and are still used for farming. Crops are planted depending on altitude. 

The drive to our hotel in the sacred valley was increasingly pleasant as time went on, owing to the decreasing elevation. Then we finally made it to our hotel. At 4pm, it was time to feed the baby alpacas. The two little brown ones (decorated in garlands) have been at the hotel for a while. There were two others-- a darker one and the little white one -- but they are brand-new and not domesticated yet, and wanted nothing to do with us. 

Then it was time for dinner, during which we heard traditional Peruvian instruments playing Abba songs. Not to worry, Sylvia's mother received the full-length version of Chiquitita.