We got up early and went to “The Meeting Place” to get breakfast. It was definitely as good as had been promised.

We met up with Maria for another day of adventures. This day we were headed to the Sacred Valley.

Our first stop was at the lookout over a town called Taray. Later we found out that Ed our Tour Guide from the Inca Trail is from here as well!

Then we stopped  off at a “Factory” where there were a lot of different breeds of alpacas which we got to feed. We also got to watch as women made garments from the alpaca fur as well as fmodel what a typical Quechua (native) kitchen /living  accommodation looked like.


Moving on we stopped at Pisaq which was part of the Sacred  Valley of the Incas. Pisaq translates to “Bird of Paradise” so Katie and Nicole did the Birds of Paradise yoga pose at the sign and Ed and I just giggled and did something a lot easier! It was built around 1440 and has a large agricultural section (the terraces), ruins of buildings and then

The scenery was beautiful. From our location we could see the Uramba River. Rather than rush on to our next stop we convinced Maria that we wanted to stay and enjoy the views and the mystical vibes we were getting from the area. We walked down the benched terraces,  took  off our shoes so we could feel the grass on our feet and let the sacred land’s energy vibrate through our bodies. the group also did some yoga poses…including Maria. There were also some cliff side burial grounds on the mountains behind the ruins. It’s hard to imagine how they would get the dead bodies up the mountainside and into the caverns at such steep slopes.

After some much needed down time we continued on to the Markets in Pisaq. We did a lot of bartering with the vendors and were able to get most of our souvenirs from here.

We continued on our journey and stopped at a guinea pig restaurant.  This has been an ongoing topic of conversation as guinea pigs are a delicacy here and eaten on special occasions.  Here in America we have pet guinea pigs who live a life of luxury with an internal confidence that they will not end up on our dinner table.




It was cooked on a stick in a fire with some herbs  stuffed on the inside. We took our pictures and made our jokes but when it came time to eat it we all struggled. I think we mostly struggled because its head and toes were on top of the “to-go carton” and we couldn’t get past the idea that it was a rodent. We did try it but the taste of the herbs was a bit overpowering and it wasn’t something I would order again.

We stopped for a real lunch and then headed on to Ollantaytambo which means ‘resting place of the warrior’.  This was a “multi-functional village” that was  a military, religious and social center.  On the top, there was the “Temple of the Sun” which was made of 6 stones which served as a sun dial and was also a temple dedicated to Mother Earth aka Pachamama.

We were the last people to leave for the day before the site closed down. It was nice to have the ruins to ourselves without masses of people. The silence and lack of distractions added to the size and significance of the ruins.

After a long day we drove the twisty roads back to Cusco and called it a night.