Hola Amigos,
Greetings from Cuzco, Peru!
We arrived here by plane a week ago. Cuzco is the capital of the Inca Empire and now a thriving predominantly Quechua speaking city, with both ancient and modern attractions. Sitting at nearly 11,000 feet, it take some adjustment for those of us coming from sea level.
To avoid altitude sickness, we quickly descended several thousand feet to Sacred Valley, first to the town of Pisac at about 9,000 feet where we spent our first 3 nights and connected with Rachel and Paul and their kids, the other TESC family joining us on this adventure. River and Sage were happy to spend time with Rebecca and Arlo, playing card games and running around the plaza.
Pisac is a lovely and interesting town with nearby Incan ruins and a thriving crafts and produce market. As this was the week of Semana Santa, Holy Week, there were interesting happenings throughout the Cuzco and Sacred Valley area. In Pisac, we saw the construction of a beautiful sacred heart design on the main plaza, made with flower petals and colored amaranth. It took a long time to make and only lasted the evening! Sage liked the market in Pisac and he bought a leather journal. River liked watching the flower design be made. Steve
Pisac is right next to the small town of Taray that was destroyed by floods last month. We saw the damage from the floods all over the valley: mudslides, erosion, etc.
After three days in Pisac, we traveled to Ollantaytambo where Steve had to make lodging arrangments for his students. Ollanta has fabulous ruins. We didn't go to the main ruin site because we will go there with the students, but we hiked up to a granary ruin site next to the town. Sage loved the ruins! River too! We saw fabulous wild flowers. It is the end of the rainy season, and the entire valley is lush and green.
It is the corn harvest time and throughout the valley and small towns we saw the locals harvesting and drying their corn, and shelling their beans. Delicious choclo con queso (corn on the cob with cheese) can be found everywhere.
Now we are in Cuzco. We have been here three nights. We are staying in the same hostel where Steve and I stayed 14 years ago when we traveled all over South America for 9 months. The same lovely family owns the hostel. The hostel is large enough for all of the 37 students who are arriving here. Many have already arrived and are getting acquainted with Cuzco.
We saw several processions, dances and activities here in Cuzco, all part of Semana Santa. Cuzco is a beautiful city, both modern and ancient. Everywhere you turn, there are remnants of ancient Inca stonework existing along modern day cafes, etc. The center of the city has several beautiful plazas and churches. Where we are staying has a beautiful view of the Plaza de Armas from the lovely upstairs terrace.
River likes a dish called lomo saltado as well as ice cream. Sage likes the ice cream, surprise, surprise! All flavors! I love the tamales. We all love going to the central market where there is a startling variety of incredible fruits, vegetables and local dishes.
We are here three more nights, and then back down to the valley with the students to visit many of the Inca ruin sites in and around Pisac and Ollantaytambo again.
River and Sage are now ready for me to be done! So, more later!
Hasta luego!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment