The first stop is at a tourist market in the middle of nowhere. It's a long semicircle shed selling all the usual Peruvian tourist stuff. There was also a juice stand by the side of the road where I got a great glass of fresh squeezed orange juice for 2 soles.
While everybody else shopped in the market I watched the llamas.
Some nice scenery coming into the Sacred Valley.
Next stop is the central market in the town of Pisaq. Still didn't buy anything but it was fun to wander around the streets.
We visited a restaurant specializing in cuy. They all live in a tiny Andean town waiting for dinner.
With a local Quechua lady and her baby.
After the market we visit the Inca ruins at Ollantaytambo. They are impressive but steep. Two of our group, an Australian woman and her daughter, take about 3 steps up the hill and decide they would rather visit the market at the bottom.
Our guide claims that the Incas used diamond saws to cut the stone blocks, although they have not found any yet. It is amazing how the blocks are fitted perfectly together and for the most part have stood up to 600 years of weather and earthquakes.
Time for lunch outside the town of Urubamba. For some reason they drop us off at different restaurants, two people at each. Jenna the Canadian and I are the first stop and we speculate that we must have paid for the cheap tour and the others are going to the three star restaurant. It's actually a very nice place, they have a buffet full of Andean foods (the best was the roast alpaca with grilled potatoes) and desserts.
It's definitely a tourist restaurant, with llamas and alpacas wandering around and a musician playing Peruvian panpipe music. I have not caught any actual Peruvians listening to panpipe music but whenever you're in a tourist spot it's ubiquitous. Sometimes it's actual Peruvian style music but just as often it's the Beatles or U2. At the market in Pisaq they had a CD of Abba's greatest hits played on panpipes.
Back on the bus we head up into the hills towards Chinchero to visit the traditional village and yet another market.
Here three Peruvian women show us the traditional methods of spinning yarn, dyeing wool with various local substances, and weaving. The bright red in their cloth comes from a kind of weevil that grows on cacti. The bug itself is white but when crushed gives off a red juice. They claimed it was tasty as well but there were no takers.
Here they are spinning yarn and singing a traditional Quechuan song about hard working wives and lazy husbands.
Weaving cloth the traditional way. It will take her almost a month to weave a piece of cloth about two feet wide and six feet long.
Another hour and a half on the bus and we're back in Cusco.
