Last day in Cusco

We began our last day in Cusco with breakfast in the hostel, this time with the other half of our avocado from last nights dinner added in.  After breakfast we went back to the San Pedro market for some mango orange juice.

We wanted to buy a thermos like the ones we'd been seeing all over South America.  They are glass inside and plastic outside and they keep things hot or cold for a really long time.  The thermos vendor wasnt open yet, their stuff was still covered by a tarp.

 We walked up to the San Blas area to look at a restaurant Joe had suggested for dinner.  It had high reviews,  but was a little pricey.  We walked back to the market, had 2 more juices (carrot mix for Ryan and Mango mix for me), and by that time the thermos lady was open.  We bought a 1.8 liter vacuum thermos, dropped it off at the hostel, and ate our left over dinner for lunch.

After lunch we met for a free walking tour of the city at one of the Plazas.  There was a really large group.  We walked through some of the streets to lookouts, tasted alpaca filet, chicha drink, and sampled chocolate tea at a chocolate museum, and learned a little about how silver jewelry is made.

We met Joe at 3 at the Plaza de Armas.  We sat in Starbucks for a while and talked before going to look at a large fancy hotel with a church connected that dates back to incan times.  We saw an art gallery that had painting by a man from whom Joe commissioned a paiting.  Lastly  we headed in to Jack's cafe for dinner.  Just outside the door a young kid with paintings to sell was telling me he knew Barak Obama and cornering me into promising to buy a painting on the way out.

Joe ordered a strawberry juice and Ryan and I ordered lemonade with mint.  WOW did this lemoade have a strong minty flavor!  It was the best lemonade we've ever had.  I could have drank another glass.  Ryan and I split a huevos rancheros and a veggie burger, Joe ordered mango pancakes that looked more like a decadent dessert.

We talked a while, Joe ordered a lemonade for himself, and we split a piece of the best carrott cake ever.  So good.  Luckily Obama's friend was gone when we came out.

We snapped a picture of us in front of the plaza, then Ryan and I headed back to the hostel to pack for our flight tomorrow morning.  Next stop - Lima!

juice area of market

incan bricks

ryan ponders the inca

like a puzzle

san blas plaza

overlooking cusco

with joe in the plaza de armas

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.

Pisac

Ryan blogging:

We woke up refreshed after a busy day at Machu Picchu.  I went for a short run and Steph worked on the blog.  I ran through a farm trail and passed several sheep and a few cows, one of which was blocking the path.  When I got back we had a leisurely breakfast outside in the garden.  Avashi had shown us some clay pots that he uses for cooking so we decided to go to the village of Pisaq and buy one.  Our directions for getting to Pisaq were "just grab any vehicle going in your direction and ask them to take you there".

We began flagging down vans and buses, none of which seemed to be going to Pisac.  After 20-30 minutes of walking we realized that we would have to take one of the buses to the village of Calca and then get another bus from Calca to Pisaq.  We hopped on a small crowded bus and began our journey.  The bus was crammed with locals one of which had an infant in her arms and sitting behind her was a women with a live chicken in a bag.  Towards the front of the bus sat a guy with a kitchen sink wrapped in plastic.  Only in South America do you see everything including the kitchen sink in a bus.  We arrived in Calca and hopped on another bus and eventually made it to Pisaq.  This whole process took some time but only cost us $4.50.

We quickly found the market and bought a few souvenirs for family and friends.  We had a delicious vegetarian lunch and looked around town for the clay pots.  All of the stores were closed, but Steph did manage to find a beautiful handmade Retablo.  She has been hunting one down ever since we landed in Santiago.  We walked back to the street where the bus dropped us off and got our series of buses back to town.  The second bus was so full that we had to stand up in the aisle for half the drive.

We arrived to the retreat, had another healthy delicious dinner and went to bed.