Entering the spectacular Sacred Valley
The landscape was incredible...especially with all the wildflowers in bloom
We stopped for some empanadas made in a traditional adobe oven
Tasty!!
They had a guinea pig "castle"...so the little guys could enjoy themselves before being served as someone's dinner
The terraces at the ruins of Pisac
The walls of the Pisac ruins showed the incredible stonework of the Incas
Daniel in front of the gate to enter the Pisac city
The Incas used the terraces for agriculture.
Spectacular view of the terraces and ruins of the royal part of the city
Overlooking the farms of the Sacred Valley
The Temple of the Sun and astronomical observatory
Wildflowers!!
Look at how tightly the blocks are still wedged together...and with no mortar at all!
The irrigation systems still work today!
It had been sunny, and then started to sprinkle, creating a beautiful rainbow...but then turning to a painful hailstorm!
Yes, that is a pig running up the trail to the ruins
At the Sunday market in Pisac
Look at all the colors of corn!
Potatoes!
Alapaca shawls
A calla lily with raindrops from the storm
Our bungalow in the Sacred Valley
At the quaint and quite relaxing Sol y Luna Lodge, outside Urumbamba
The Incan agricultural terraces at Moray
where the Incas did experiemental farming
The rings actually have slightly different microclimates, with a difference of 15 degress Celsius (69 Fahrenheit) from top to bottom!
The Incas would test to see which crops grew best where.
Our guide, Chino, had brought his horses from Ollantaytambo for us to ride for the day.
It was Dan's second time on a horse, ever!
Chino leading the way on the plateau from Moray to the town of Maras
A Peruvian shepherd with his flock
The scenery was astoundingly beautiful
The vegetation was so diverse and showed how fertile the land must be to support such varied agriculture.
Dan and Chino headign off towards the town of Maras
Dan and our horses in the Maras town square
On our horses in the Maras town square
Heading down into the valley on horseback
Approaching the salt mines of Salineras
Salineras was striking against the lush valley in the Spring
Dan's horse
The salt mines reminded us both of the tanneries in Fez, Morocco
Each family in Maras is given a plot of land and creates their own pool and harvests their own salt
The water is naturally salty, but as the water evaporates, the crystals bind together...
...eventually making large crystals like this
Daniel and Chino at Salineras
Back on horseback, descending further into the valley
The views were simply breathtaking!
Chino took us to a "Chicheria" (where they sell home fermented corn beer) and showed us how to play an Incan drinking game
The goal is to throw gold coins into the frog's mouth
All the different ways the locals prepare "choclo," the popular local variety of corn
At the ruins of Ollantaytambo
The fortress where Manco Inca held out against the Spanish conquistadors
Chino explaining the history of Ollantaytambo while overlooking the old city
The face of this mountain is supposedly a man's face that was carved in by the Incas (look for the "nose" in the middle-left of the photo)
Daniel in the Ollantaytambo ruins
Overlooking the valley, where locals have been farming for centuries
Overlooking the town and ruins
Astounding that the water fountains and systems still work after all these years
