June 22nd - Cusco

Greetings from Cusco - GASP!   11,500 feet

Our Hotel Ninos is on a road that is under construction...no Beep-beep!

We walked to the Plaza de Armas....

And there was a parade with floats and native dress.

We also stopped in at the Center for Textiles and watched backstrap weaving demonstrations.

June 21st - Machu Picchu

Today we returned to Machu Picchu to see more of the ruins and do extra hiking.  The weather was dry and the sky was clear!  

Joyce and I headed up Machu Picchu Mountain.  It was a two hour uphill hike and we made it 3/4 of the way up.  The pointy peak in the top right photo was our goal!

During our descent, we heard a rustling just off to the right in the cloud forest...too loud to be a bird.

It was a big animal, we were thinking it was the rare spectacled bear.  So we crouched down low and approached cautiously, binoculars at the ready.  Well, it was a spectacle alright!  We heard pfbbbbbft...

And saw a man squatting in the woods suffering from Atahuala's Revenge.  Hee-hee!  We slunk off in a hurry to give him his privacy! (Sorry, no pics of this!)

Now we are traveling by train and bus to Cusco.  The train tracks are under repair due to a landslide!

June 24th - Cusco's Inti Raymi Celebration

Let's Raymi!  Inti Raymi is a once a year "Sun Party".  We started off at the Temple of the Sun (Koricancha) where we watched the Inti Raymi participants march by on their way to their dramatization.

Then we went to Sacsayhuaman where we experienced the grand pageant. 

Check out these stones!

Tomorrow at 3am, we leave for 5 days in the Amazon jungle.  There will be no Internet...so I will fill you in when I can.  Ciao!

June 20th - Machu Picchu

        

        

        

June 19th - Aguas Caliente

  I hope you have a great day!  Love, Mom

Today we went to the market and bought fruit for the train trip.  We walked around and said goodbye to Ollantaytambo. (Sigh)

We boarded Train 303 and headed for Aguas Calietes.  At first, it looked like they were laying down the tracks as we went.  The scenery was beautiful even though it rained most of the way...Joyce and I were assigned front row seats with a great big picture window. Wow!

We have arrived at Aguas Calientes safe and sound.  Our hotel Rupa Wasi is way up in the trees.  I think Joyce counted over 100 steps to our room. Yikes!  I am literally in a tree house!  

Good practice for tomorrow's climb, huh?  We will eat breakfast at 4:30 am and head up to Machu Picchu with our guide tomorrow at 5:30am.  Night-night!

June 18th - Ollantaytambo

Today we took a day trip from Ollantaytambo and saw spectacular scenery.

We drove through the town of Maras to Moray where we observed circular Inca agricultural terracing.  

Then we drove to Salinas...can you guess what these are pictures of?

These are salt pans.  Salt water (70% solution) flows out of the mountain.  It is channelled into drying pans 10 centimeters deep where it is left to evaporate.  Voila!  SALT! Then the owners of the individal salt pans would break up the salt and carry it off.  The salt had several grades of purity...used for animals, industrial, cooking and table salt. 

Here is a woman weaving a basket with different colors of corn husks.

June 17th - Ollantaytambo

Today we were driven to Ollantaytambo via Urubamba where we stopped at Seminario Ceramicas Studio and watched the different stages of pottery making.

Once on Ollantaytambo, we hiked up the Inca ruins with a guide. Amazing! 

Then we walked around the Plaza and looked in some of the various shops. Do you like Joyce's hat?

On the right-hand corner of the large picture is KB Tambo, our "hotel".

June 16th - Pisac

We started in the market where Jorge and Heidi purchased hats. 

I went to the Quechuan Mass and saw the leaders of the highland villages represented.

Then we hiked to the Pisac ruins.

Gio feels like we all do.