I bailed on Ollantaytambo

After visiting the Incan ruins of Chinchero and Moray today, we made our way to Ollantaytambo. It started raining ferociously as soon as we reached the plaza and while storms rage outside, I sit comfortably at the computer while Mike braves the weather, climbing mountains up to ruins which I can see out the window of this second story adobe building. There is a stone face in the side of the mountain that looks a bit grumpy, which is what I would be were I climbing at Mike´s pace right now. I have several excuses of course. Ready for ém.

1)I barely decided to come today since I´m on the 3rd day of the return of the giardia. (which we realized must have come from jumping into the pools of water at Coimata I remembered saying to Mike, ¨Oops, I totally just swallowed some water¨ note-there was cow and goat doo-doo everywhere. Stupid, I know. I´m taking meds, don´t worry.

2)Not thinking I was coming today, I was underprepared (no rainpants and no hiking boots)

3)I knew all of you would be waiting for this blog so actually I bailed for ya´ll!

Ok...so now that I have justified being lame, here´s the real stuff:

Cuzco is beautiful! When the Spanish took over they built some beautiful cathedrals and plazas on top of the allready amazing Incan architecture. We´ve found a cheap hostal ($10 a day) with semi-warm shower, a kitchen and a wonderful upper patio that looks over the Plaza de Armas for lounging, eating, yoga, etc. We´ve been saving tons of money by buying food in the market and cooking at home. During the past several days, we have seen many of the typical tourist attractions, that are actually really amazing. Pictured here is a creepy pic from inside a cave at Templo de la Luna (temple of the moon for all you non-spanglish speakers) There was a hole in the top of the cave where light shined through and intricately carved platforms (probably for sacrificing llamas and such)We walked up to Puca Pucara (seen below) and meditated at the top for a while. A guide there said it is a very sacred space, many sacrifices had taken place there as well. It was a stopping point, sort of like a hotel along the Inca trail to Qosqo, which means navel or center of the empire. (The Spanish changed it to Cusco because they couldn´t pronounce the Quechua language.)

Yesterday, we went to Pisac and were blown away by the beauty of where the Incans established themselves there. The stonework was phenomenal and the views from the site were breathtaking! They have a great market there on Sunday!

We have been surprised not to see too many tourists around and we have loved being at places with few other people around. There are a few handfuls in the city but nothing annoying. This is the rainy season yet today is the first day we have rearranged for the rain. We leave on Wednesday for our 5 day hike to Machu Picchu. We decided that since we are here, we must see it! We found an alternate route than the Incan trail, which cost too much for our budget. Our friend Caesar said it´s just as good!

Mike made it back safely. He said he ran down the mountain because they were blowing the whistle that they were closing. That´s all for now! More pics coming soon to flickr.com