Cusco

We woke up to our last morning at Sacred Valley.  We were up early but stayed in bed a while because breakfast wasn't til 9 (thats at least 9:15 or 9:30 Sacred Valley time.)  The owners had some children over from a local orphanage to help with their pending move to another town.  They were all friendly and the two girls gave Ryan and I a hug when they came in the dining room.

After breakfast we walked to Urubamba, about  a 45 minute walk, to the "eco-ferrria."  There were several booths set up selling natural foods and goods.  We bought a little jar or peanut butter (to make sandwiches for the way home), a large green smoothie, a brownie, Ryan had a piece of pizza, and we bought 2 clay bowls and 2 clay mugs.  We had cafe con leches and a fruit salad at the same bakery from our first day.

We took a mototaxi back, said our goodbyes, grabbed our stuff and took another moto back to Urubamba to catch a bus to Cusco.

Cusco is about an hour away.  By the time we arrived, Ryan said his stomach was starting to be bothered by the windey, bumpy roads.

We took a taxi to our hostel once we arrived in Cusco.  The hostel was pretty empty, I think we were the only guests.  Its a very old building and the lock on the door is "a joke" in Ryan's words.

Its pretty drafty and a little run down, but hey, it will be fine.  The staff only speaks Spanish, but we're getting by.

After we dropped off our things we walked around a little, found the Plaza de Armas, and picked a spot for dinner once we were tired wandering.  Ryan got veggie kabobs, I got aan undercooked burger.  His stomach was still on the outs so we came back and went to bed.

This morning we were both feeling well, and we had breakfast in the hostel.  I went to reception to tell them we were ready, and a guy came and made us each a scramblend  egg which we had with bread, jam, fresh squeezed oj, and coffee or tea.  Not bad.

After breakfast we walked to the San Pedro market.  It's mostly food and local goods, but there are a few souvenier booths.  We had some mango juice and a snack of rice, avocado, egg, and fried all on a plate.  Pretty good!

We spent the rest of the day shopping around for friends and family.  We found a cute baby alpaca sweater set for Ryan's friend who is a new father to a baby girl.  I got Baba a read Peru t-shirt per her request.  I also got something small for each of my cousins, and a pendant for my grandma Pannunzio.

We had lunch at Jack's cafe near the plaza.  i had chicken and veggie soup, Ryan had muesli and yogurt.  We went back to the market and bought a clay pot and wooden ladle that we can cook with at home.  We saw that they used one in Sacred Valley.  The issue now is how to get all this stuff home in one piece.  I already hear something rolling around in the retablo, which is all wrapped up in newspapers and taped.  I think the girl shoved the newspaper into the inside of it too hard and probably broke a piece that I'll have to glue when I get home.

We cooked out own dinner with the lentils and quinoa that we still had left, and some veggies picked up from the market.  We talked with the owner of the hostel for a while (spanish practice).  We are now trying to figure out how to pack everything up for our flight to lima and our flights home.  Wish us luck.