Thursday, January 31, 2013

Our first excursion: Valle Segrado (Sacred valley)

On our second weekend in Cusco, we set off on adventure. You saw pictures of ruins in my last post, as there are a few small cool things to see very close to Cusco. However, on this trip to the Sacred Valley, we realized how much more amazing "ruins" could be. I hope you get the impression in the following pictures of how impressive and beautiful this area truly is. 


Its a 4 hr hike up to this point, or a 20 minute taxi ride for 6 dollars...seeing as though we've only been here for 2 weeks, we felt completely fine using the "altitude excuse" 

The alien antennas are hiking poles, we just got our first poles for Christmas from Tom/Nancy, and
we've quickly become believers, if you like hiking and dont like sore knees: buy some

Trying to be a cool picture-taker here, with the clouds/sun..did it work?

Just in case you had gone through withdrawal from "ben/maren pictures from the top of mountains"

This picture shows the "valley" aspect of this sacred valley

Man in picture with red shirt walked down the mountain playing a lyre, it was as if we had a live soundtrack

Cuy (guinea pig) is a delicacy in Peru, we havent been brave enough yet, and all these restaurants with guinea pig displays aren't building my appetite, I guess the idea is to prove how fresh the meat is, idk?

Our view from our hotel...its pretty amazing how just 7 days of sharing a room with a family makes you crave your own quiet space, this hotel was the perfect peaceful respite 

View of and from breakfast...

Ollanytambo below..super cool little town, we'll be back several times

Look closely...in the middle of hiking around these ruins in Chinchero, we stumbled upon these 100 or so people, sitting in big circles drinking beer...men on one side/ women on the other, what a cool sunday afternoon tradition

red crates held all the beer, wish we were invited to join this sweet hangout

Our friends directed us to this really cool woman's co-op where they make really beautiful things, we bought an amazing hand-made alfombra (rug), feeling really good about this purchase


CLICK BELOW TO SEE MORE PICTURES (this is my favorite album of the 4 I have published so far, soo....if you've been avoiding the extra pictures on my posts, this might be the one to click)


















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