Two down, two to go. Not sights to see, but people in our little travel group. Monica and Alex have been struck with ailments ranging from diarrhea to fever to backpains so today Charles and I had to set out by ourselves. I haven't had time to return to the hostel to check on the patients yet, but hopefully they're better now as we're embarking on a tour to Machu Picchu tomorrow morning.
Yesterday, however, all four of us were more or less healthy and in the afternoon we bussed to some Inca ruins about 15 minutes away from Cuzco and walked back to the city, visiting other ruins on the way.
Charles and my trip today consisted of a little tour around the Sacred Valley outside of Cuzco, visiting Inca ruins. Our first stop was Pisac, where we took a taxi up to ruins outside the village. The Pisac route is cleverly laid out, tourist-wise, as you enter a craft market as soon as you descend from the ruins and then end up on a street full of cafés. And as with every stop thereafter, Charles and I made up for a lack of guiding by making up stories about the Inca and the ruins. As we see it, the Inca's were pretty damn cool.
Pisac was followed by Ollantaytambo, a smaller village but with what we thought were cooler ruins. Especially as we decided that the windows were used to display shrunken enemies' heads and that people were punished on a urination bench. We could start a very successful alternative tour of the Sacred Valley, Charles and I.
I'm going to end this with another reminder to check out Alex' blog: http://pancakesandlithium.blogspot.com
I've also discovered that Charles' blog is in English, not French, so here it is: http://www.charlesamericalatina.blogspot.com
Enjoy!
