Greetings from Peru! First stop--Ollantaytambo

¡Viajemos de Estados Unidos a Perú! ¡Estamos aquí!

Our new chapter began last week with a sweet ride to the airport in my SIL's Tesla, a flight from Baltimore (BWI) to Atlanta (ATL), an overnight flight from ATL to Lima (LIM), and a morning flight from LIM to Cusco (CUZ). Our one checked bag full of school books even made it! We easily caught a taxi in Cusco for the 1.5 hour drive to Ollantaytambo (cost was 200 soles, which was what we were told was a reasonable price and at ~$50US, I'd have to agree).

Less than 24 hours of travel door-to-door...a little sleepy, but feeling good!

Why was Ollantaytambo our first stop? A few reasons...flights were cheaper mid-week than on the weekend and when you're traveling with four people that really adds up, we had the time, fellow cruising/traveling friends had recommended a few days there (thanks, Rae Lynn!), and at 2000' lower than Cusco we figured it would be a good place to acclimate! We booked an inexpensive room in an AirBnB (with breakfast) for four nights and had absolutely no plan other than to show up and see how we felt. 

At only $54/nt (including all fees) this was a great stay and breakfast was yummy!

Wednesday | The first day we decided to find some food, no matter how touristy the place, and take a quick walk around before naps. That ended up working out great as we had amazing food and Pisco sours at Inka's Tower and found our room to be super cozy! It is a small, very walkable town with lots of tourists coming and going as there is an archeological site and the train to Machu Picchu right in town, but also lots of farming and local workers about. I immediately started to have a little crush on this town. We ended the day with an amazing dinner at Restaurante Pizzeria Mijunapaq! 

A great first afternoon in Peru!

Thursday | On our first full day in Ollantaytambo we decided to hike the trails around the Pinkuylluna archaeological site. This site is free to visit and has many remains of a hillside Incan storage facility. It's steep, but the views are worth it and we were able to take our time and see how we felt (at 3350m elevation!). After that, we walked around town a bit more and stumbled upon a trail to another archaeological site, Quelloraqay. This one was great because we got to walk through the active, terraced farms just outside the town to access it. We also found the 5 sole meat-on-a-stick vendor, and the boys liked it! (We would later find out there was another girl that sold them for 2 soles and they were just as good!) Next stop as we wandered around town...the Cuy House! Cuy, or guinea pig, is actually normal food in these parts. We visited the Cuy House to learn about how they are raised for consumption (only 5 months until they can end up on a plate!), and the boys booked a dinner there to try it out. I mean, if you're going to try it, you don't get much more farm-to-table than that! We vegetarian gals opted for a girls night out of our own. The verdict on cuy--Trent gave it a 2 out of 10 and seems a bit traumatized by the experience, whereas Frank said it was gamey and while not bad, not something he'd repeat given the other amazing food here.

Majestic Pinkuylluna

Quelloraqay

The Cuy House, the cuy dinner, and the girls' reaction to seeing that pic of Trent's dinner.

Friday | Since we were all feeling great we decided to take on the full circuit of the Ollantaytambo archaeological site. We spent a few hours here traversing what used to be a pretty large Incan city and then on a whim decided to grab a taxi and head out to the Salineras de Maras and Moray archaeological site. Our taxi driver Rodolfo was awesome and told us about the different local areas as we passed through them. Ok, I kind of like sampling local salts so this was a fun day for me, but the Salineras de Maras are just massive! And they were actively harvesting salt from the beds by hand while we were there. I just loved it. Then we went down such a rough road that I felt bad for our driver to arrive at Moray, an ancient agricultural laboratory on a grand scale. By then end of the day we were simply overwhelmed by the massive construction works undertaken by the Inca. We got back mid-afternoon and hit up the vendors by the municipal market (i.e. local) for some street food snacks (food for all of us for 11 soles) before heading back to our cozy inn to wash the hours of dust away. Trent got to choose our dinner place after his cuy experience!

Ollantaytambo

Salineras de Maras. Such an extensive, active operation, and all fed by a mountain spring!

Such a cool agricultural laboratory.

Street food!

Saturday | We stayed local for our last full day in this special town. Three of us hiked Pinkuylluna again and found a hidden trail at the base of the mountain. We had lunch at the municipal market amongst the locals (great food for very little money!), had some fresh squeezed juice, and shopped for some wool items in the market. While the kids went to an awesome bean-to-bar chocolate experience at the Coco Museo, the adults headed to the Cervecería de Valle Sagrado taproom for some really good beer, then we took a walk down a road heading out of town to see a new area. We were beckoned back by the sound of music and found a political parade in full swing! Local elections are in early October and campaigning is very active. For our last night here, we opted for a big, delicious meal on a terrace overlooking the Plaza de Armas. The food was just amazing (just ask Frank how great the veggie skewer is!) and we loved watching people come and go. 

A last little bit of hiking for 3/4 of the crew.

Lunching like locals is definitely the way to go (and we shopped!).

Chocolate, beer, and the bad-ass, rock-wielding wife of an Incan leader, Ñusta Kura Oqllo.

A last night out in Ollantaytambo and dinner at La Serranita.

Sunday | But wait, there's more! We had Rodolfo pick us up from our hotel and drive us out to the Pisac archaeological site. This site is massive and there are many options for how to visit it. We opted for an almost 3-hour hike past the popular Pisac Q'allaqasa (citadel) at 3514m above sea level, to a "mirador" over the old and new city 3517m, through a tunnel, down to Into Watana, to an overlook of Pisaqa (the old town), then back up to the base of the citadel before stopping by a few more ruins on our way out of the park. Holy cow, we covered some vertical and horizontal distance on a hot day, but WOW, that place it just too sprawling to really explain. I hope the pictures do it some justice.

A long, steep, hot hike, but sooooo worth it to explore this ancient town and its sprawling farmlands.

And after a quick stop for empañadas in Pisac were arrived in Cusco. We are currently staying in one floor of a family's home and we join them for breakfast and lunch. Our host, Maria, took us into town to see where the school is and we should be ready to go. We will have to get used to the quirks of water and public transportation in Cusco, but hope to report some good times (and lots of Spanish speaking!) soon!

~Jo, Nomadic Momma