Peru - Ollantaytambo and Cusco

We returned from Machu Picchu exhausted.  We went to our hotel and ordered food delivered to the room.  Taking the boyz to the hotel restaurant was simply not an option.  Public dining was challenging on a good day and we needed our rest.  We still had another full day of the sacred valley ahead of us starting with a morning hike in the hillside above Ollantaytambo.

The hike was really a descent.  We drove up in our mini bus to a high point on the ridge and then hiked down along an amazing collection of ancient Incan aqueducts and mountains terraces.

The views were breathtaking and the collection of floura and fauna on the hike was impressive.  The boyz however were starting to show the fatigue of four days of early mornings and strange environments. The three miles of downhill walking ended at exactly the right time.  Maybe even a few minutes too late :)...  But, we made it.

The next activity on our itinerary was a lunch like nothing any of us had ever had eaten.  It was a traditional pachamanca meal prepared by heating a bunch of granite rocks and literally burying the uncooked food with herbs and the hot rocks.  The food and rocks were covered with wet canvas to protect them and after 20 minutes the food was deliciously prepared.

We all ate well except Zev who had been dislpaying a fair amount of tolerance for new foods during the trip.  This time he just couldn’t accept the flavors.   He did enjoy some sweet potatoe but not much else.  He was simply exhausted and clearly wanted a meal that looked exactly like what he was used to.  This was far from it.  Little did we know our day wasn’t even done. We still had one more Incan  historial site to visit.  It was one too many.   Zev flat out revolted until Elad went up the stairs and brotherly competition kicked in.  It was actually a nice way to end our time in the Sacred valley.  The views up and down the various valleys gave us a unique perspective on the distances we had travelled.  And, there was no doubt as we descended the ruins that our boyz had given us their all. 

Their reward for their amazing participation was a mellow day in Cusco and a trip to the cacao museum which included a lot of chocolate tasting.  Enjoy the video or our chocolate workshop.

Link to Full Screen Video

We woke the next morning with a chocolate hangover and a long trip ahead of us.  We were leaving the cool mountain air of Cusco and heading to the Peruvian Amazonia region for a jungle adventure.