Amaru and Our Long Trek

Hola everyone! We just got back yesterday from our weekend in Pisac and Amaru and had such a great time! Our bus ride to Pisac was pretty interesting. On this particular bus, there are different fares if you want a seat or want to stand. We opted to pay the extra sole to sit. A couple blocks later this clearly Andean mountain woman got on the bus and started trying to get people to give her their seats. We stopped along a few villages on the way to Pisac and once enough people had gotten off she approached us saying, 'Oh I have a bad back please let me sit!' To which we responded 'No we paid for these seats.' She then proceeded to lean against me the entire rest of the ride...and I mean lean against me intensely. She was probably taking up half of my seat, and she did not smell like anything close to roses. It was pretty funny. Then the people in front of us got off and she immediately dove into their seats. What we couldn't figure out was why she was attacking us when there were plenty of free seats in the back...funny lady. So once we got into Pisac we met our guide Adrian and had to wait for another four women who were coming along on the trip as well. We took a seat next to the road with a family that seemed to own the entire corner...they operated the bathrooms (because you have to pay) and had a little food stand going. We waited around an hour and a half before the other gringos (white people) arrived, but we were very content just watching the family and the kids :). Once the other people arrived we headed up to Amaru where they greeted us by dropping rose petals on our heads. We then took a walk around the village, enjoying the view and all of the people that we saw. In the mountains usually everyone speaks Quechua which is similar to a tribal language, but more widely spread throughout South America. Only the men and children speak Spanish so it was more difficult to converse with the women.

After our walk we headed to a field where a man and some children were making little stoves out of rocks. It looked like a little mound of rocks with a hole in the front for the fire. Little did we know that they were cooking potatoes for us! After about 15 minutes they collapsed the stoves so that the potatoes cooked in the dirt. Then after about 10 more minutes they dug out the potatoes and we started peeling and eating them with our hands! It was so fun! They even brought some salad and cheese for us to have with them! Our hands were so dirty afterwards, but it was so worth it. Then we headed to our host family's house where we set down our things, met our family and had some tea. It was freezing where we were, so the tea was very tasty. Then we got all dressed up in authentic Andean outfits and headed to dance! My outfit was a beautifully woven skirt with a shawl and a really fun hat and Emily got the guys outfit (we're still not sure why) of a poncho and awesome hat! Our walk in the dark was pretty interesting, but you can see pretty much all of the stars here and it was so beautiful and magnificent! I just love seeing the heavens declare the Glory of God, so I was so happy. Then we danced while the men played music on a flute and a drum :). It was so much fun, especially when the little girls joined in!

In the morning the plan was to catch a combi back to town. However, Sunday is market day and the first combi we saw was absolutely filled to the brim. So we ended up hiking down the mountain from Amaru. After a 30 min. descent, we hopped on a combi at the nearest town. We sat in the back of the van and wached as the combi filled with colorfully dressed women and chidren going to buy and sell goods in the Pisac market. We placed the pack across our legs and were so wedged in we couldn´t get our hands down to our pockets to get out the coins needed to pay for the ride. It was a vibrant experience.

We found a nice hostel in Pisac to stay for the night. After a quick nap we wandered around the market purchasing gifts for our dear friends and family and warm sweaters, mittens and leg warmers to help keep us warm. At night after all the tourist leave, there´s not much to do in Pisac. However, we found a wonderful restaurant on the plaza that served brownies and icecream! Needless to say we ate a wonderful meal and played all sorts of games at the cafe. It was interesting to observe and easedrop on the conversations of the local ¨gringos¨who actually live in Pisac.

After a good night´s sleep in Pisac (complete with our new kitty friend ¨Lechuga¨ meowing and scratching at our door all night) we awoke and at a scrumptious breakfast at a hotel on the plaza. Then we started our climb to the top of a mountain to see the Pisac ruins. We didn´t have a map so we ended up on the original Inca trail to the top. We found at this trail was excessively more difficult than the normal trail. What made the hike so grueling were the thousands of stairs etched into the mountainside. There were no flat paths the whole way up. Just stairs and more stairs. Some steps so big you had to climb your way up. We kept getting to what we thought was the top, but then realized the Pisac ruins were scattered among this mountain top. We hiked around the ruins at the top purposefully trying to stay away from the massive groups of tourists marching around the ruins. Needless to say, we took the easy trail back down the mountain. All in all, that hike was around 4 miles (up and around and down). After fresh baked bread for lunch we hopped on a local bus to take us half way back to Cusco. We planned on getting off and then walking back to Cusco while visiting the ruins on the way. The ruins were mildly exciting. However, we enjoyed our scenic walk back to town. We passed lots of cows and small villages. The whole way was down hill (but no steps) so we were happy. However our knees and feet took the brunt of the weight and are very sore today. We spent the majority of the afteroon walking and arrived back at our hostel in Cusco around 4 pm. We felt our small 8 mile trek was good practice for our Colca Canyon trek coming up. It was a long day, but we rewarded ourselves with a hot and yummy dinner at our favorite restaurant near our hostel in San Blas.

This morning (Tuesday) we finally got a hot shower! We need to run a few errands around town then we are going to take another local bus to Ollataytambo where we will spend the night. Tomorrow we take the train to Aguas Calientes where we vill visit Macchu Pichu on Thursday. We should be back in Cusco on Friday :)