Machu Picchu

With Huayan Picchu in the background

With all the rush of getting home, I never got a chance to post about our last day, the day perhaps I'd been waiting for since the trip began.  Machu Picchu, a World Heritage Site and one of the 'new' 7 Wonders of the World (though there are so many lists it barely counts these days) was definitely one of the main reasons our South American trip shifted over to Peru.

The Incans built it atop a mountain like so many of their other cities, but this site is special specifically because of its size and the fact that it was undiscovered and therefore not 'bettered' by the Spanish after being abandon around the time of their invasion.  It was only rediscovered in the 1920s, and a lot of work has been done on it since then in cutting away trees and grass and the restoration of some of the walls.  It seems a rather obvious sight from the valley, and I had to question how the Spanish never looked up from the river to see it when using the  terraces around the mountain.  But I gather the tree growth and greenery did cover up much of it.

Our day started early again, not early enough to see the sunrise from the top of Machu Picchu but enough that it was still pretty chilly out.  But also as expected, the bus station was swamped with people and we had to wait as they loaded up bus after bus to take the treacherous climb up the mountain.  JS was telling me how the drive had been much worse years ago when he had gone to Machu Picchu for the first time; how he was sitting in the back and the bus's rear tires were barely staying on the road, which meant the section past the rear tires that he was sitting in kept fishtailing off the road and over the edge of the cliff.  The road is much wider now, and they were even working to continue to improve it as we drove up.  But on the turns (because the whole drive is pretty much a series of switchbacks) there is definitely only room for one bus, and we came to an abrupt halt several times to creep forward and let another bus carefully pass us.

We also passed a number of people who were climbing up the mountain instead of taking the bus, and I excused us for being lazy seeing as we were going to climb Huayna Picchu, (which means young mountain to Machu's old) the nearby and much taller mountain, later that morning.

Temple of the Sun

But once we got to the top, we got to explore Machu Picchu.  We started at the top of the terraces which gave us the traditional postcard view which is, of course, breathtaking.  It's amazing to look down at history like that, especially when it's still kind of early morning with the fog burning off and a chill in the air.  We next went down and explored the upper part of the ruins, which included the living space of the Inca, who was their leader (and the only one who had an in-suite bathroom), other living quarters, the temple of the Sun, the temple of the three windows, and a couple of outlines of rocks that had been shaped to resemble the nearby mountains.  There were also a number of rooms and terraces that we wandered through, seeing the tight-fitting original construction for the temples and the more fluid rock shape of the living quarters, along with the rock and cement that makes up most of the restoration.

Then it was time to climb to the summit of Huayna Picchu!  They only let in 400 people a day in two groups, and we were the second group at 10AM.  This made things a little complicated on the very long, very steep way up, as people were coming down at the same time and the paths were very narrow, with only room for one person moving.  There were parts where I wouldn't want to be the person holding still on the outside--a significant bump definitely could have sent someone plunging pretty far down the mountain.  The stairs we were going up had been modified slightly, but were still based on the original steps the Incans had made to get up to the additional towers they had made at the top of this mountain.  There were ropes tied into the sides to hold for balance, but there were places that you just kind of had to crawl up slowly, mindful of your balance.  It was a little scary, but the view from the top gives you such a feeling of accomplishment when you look down at where you've been that it's all worthwhile.


The climb down was almost worse than the climb up.  Because of all the walking we'd been doing, I was actually fine with the climb up, but the uneven steps, especially coupled with their large size, made for a more difficult climb down.  My knees were definitely feeling the impact with each hop down by the end of it.  Someone told me that they're thinking about building a cable car to the top of the mountain.  I think half of the appreciation is the effort that it takes to get up there, personally.

We wandered through the lower city, seeing the temple with the condor of stone and the reflecting pools which may have reflected the stars at night before heading out for another bus trip down the mountain.  Then it was a train ride, a car ride, and three planes to home!

Sacred Valley

We were back on our early mornings so that we could drive out of Cuzco to the Sacred Valley of the Incans, which is sacred mostly because of the fertile land and the river that runs through it. It was a few hours of driving through beautiful, foggy landscape and again seeing all those Incan terraces, created so many centuries ago, still being used for farming today.

Písac Farmer's Market

Písac was the first town we stopped near, to see another set of Incan ruins.  It's kind of funny going back to write this, because it seems like we visited a whole lot of ruins and I feel like I'm saying the same sorts of things about them.  But understand that going to all these sites is totally different.  We were fascinated by all the different ruins, and they all were amazing to explore and wander through.  So many little quirks and corners to get lost in, it's easy to image that you're back in time, especially with the fog rolling in off the hills.

Písac is also famous for its craft market, which apparently attracts people from Cuzco as well as other villages nearby.  There were a lot of touristy things there, but there were also some more unique items as well.  The colors of all the scarves and shirts and ponchos for sale made for a beautiful background to the market.  There was also a big fruit market, with some more unusual types of fruit, ones that I wouldn't necessarily know what to call in English.

Ollantaytambo street, water on the right.

The town of Ollantaytambo, where we stopped to look at another set of ruins, is pretty old and neat itself. The entire street is made of stone, and because the houses are made of the same stone, still ruins from an Incan settlement, it gives the whole town a very rustic feel.  There's water running along one side of the road, giving it a constant watery tingle.  You can tell that some of the doorways used to be the entrance to a temple because it's not just a simple line of rocks, but has protrusions on either side and the top.  And there was only ever one door to these places, so the locals have had to do a bit of work either making additional doors, or always walking around to one certain side.

The ruins here were quite the uphill hike, which perhaps puts us in training for Machu Picchu and the climb up the nearby mountain we're to do tomorrow.  They did have stairways up the terraces, which isn't always an obvious thing to have.  Most farmers climbed up over each wall using rocks that purposefully jutted out from the walls.

Terraces and ruins at Ollantaytambo

This was another religious temple, also dedicated to the sun, which was incomplete and abandoned during construction, perhaps because of war.  The most impressive part is called Wall of the Six Monoliths, which are colossal stones that once seemed to have been carved but through the centuries have been made smooth by the elements.  Our guide had us look out at the mountainside, and he pointed out the location the stones were believed to have been carried from.  They were halfway up another mountain across the river, and he reminded us that the only beasts they had to assist them aside from their own labor were alpacas, who didn't carry more than 60 lbs, and most of the rocks hauled up weighed more than that.  The other fascinating tidbit he revealed was that the stones were carved up in the quarry on the other side of the mountain and then brought to the temple, where they fit perfectly into their spot.  Pretty impressive if it's true.

On the other side of the mountain, we could see areas of little caves in the cliffs, which we were told were the graves, probably of many of the laborers who worked on Ollantaytambo.  There are graves all over the mountainside, hidden as best they could be from the Spanish and other later grave robbers who might take the valuables buried with the bodies.

After all that talk of death, it was time for lunch!  We ate at a beautiful buffet that had macaws and alpaca as well as pecunias in addition to the good food.  Then it was time to catch our train to Machu Picchu town!

After arriving there, we wandered the town for a bit of dinner.  It's very touristy, and the prices are definitely driven up because of it.  We also figured out that the tourists must like Mexican food, because it was offered, along with pizza and local dishes, at almost every place.  The great thing about Mexican food in Peru is that they grow palta, or avocado, so guacamole is super cheap and easy to get there.  The bad thing is everything else...it's definitely Mexican food with a Peruvian twist!

The town is really pretty, though.  We were finally in more of a tropical zone than a desert for once, with lush trees and a river running down the middle of the town, which is pretty small to begin with.  Our hotel had three stories, and JS brought his beer up to the top and we watched the mist gradually settle over the top of the mountains as it grew darker.  Mysterious.  Machu Picchu, here we come!

Cuzco

Finally, a chance to sleep in! I made good use of that; traveling long distances practically every day and getting up early to go and do things definitely takes its toll.

Qorikancha ruins inside a Spanish church

We had scheduled a tour around Cuzco for later in the afternoon, but for the morning we went out for a late brunch at my favorite spot, a little coffee shop nearby our hotel. JS did mention how the clientele of the coffee shop was exactly as he would have expected a coffee shop to have anywhere. People with hipster glasses reading books, etc. They had really good smoothies and empanadas, too!

Our guide picked us up and we went right across the street from our hotel to the Temple of the Sun, or Qorikancha. The Incans worshiped the four elements of Wind, Water, Earth and Sun, with sun being one of the most important. This temple, in the center of the city of Cuzco, which was the Incan capital of South America and this temple perhaps the most important one there was.

You can tell the important Incan buildings by the care that is put into their brickwork. For their fortresses, the stone stays about its original size and they used rocks of all sizes to fill in where the rocks didn't quite match to fit them together properly. For worship, the temple bricks are all about the same height and color, though the width was often different. This actually allowed for better earthquake stability - yes, the Incans had seismic building strategies! They used a thinner stone placed in between bigger ones which would give way more easily to the stresses of an earthquake. They also used a rolling stone at the bottom of the walls to allow it to move.

Interlocking stones

Another amazing thing about these walls is that they actually link together because the Incans carved out holes to fit the pieces together smoothly. That's why the Spanish found it impossible to knock down the temple walls when they invaded (though perhaps invaded isn't quite the right term - the Incans allowed them to simply waltz into the city because they believed them to be Gods because of their beards. By the time they figured out the truth, it was too late) and built a church on the same spot as the temple. Because what is the best way to convert a populace? To use their same holidays and religious places in the new religion. So the Spanish built up a grander church around that temple, and when they were unable to knock down those Incan walls, they simply plastered them and painted frescos on them. The Peruvians themselves didn't know that the walls contained inside the church dated back to the Incan times until kind of recently, when the plaster started coming off.

Incan doorway

We visited three other sets of Incan ruins after this, starting with a water temple that had water bubbling up from a spring and filtering it to nearby fields. This one also had a number of niches in the walls that our guide said used to hold mummies. On special days, such as the winter solstice, the people would march with the mummies down the street in a parade as worship. We also visited a watch tower ruin high on the red hills and the largest ruin in Cuzco, Sacsayhuaman, which we were taught sounds like 'sexy woman'. The complex was huge. It was also a guard fortification, but was considered to be the teeth of the city when it came to people and weapons. The entire old city of Cuzco was actually made in the shape of a puma, with two streams of water running along the sides to form its front and back and tail. And Sacsayhuaman is where the eye and mouth of the puma is. And the cool thing is that the walls actually look like jagged teeth.

I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but the puma is one of the animals that represents one of the three worlds, the living world and the level of humans. The condor represents the Gods above, and the snake is the underworld. A lot of items in these temples come in threes because of these three worlds, which hold religious significance.

Sacsayhuaman. Three levels for three worlds.

Another major part of Sacsayhuaman, which is mostly closed off, are the cave trails that lead from one mountain to the other. Our guide actually took us through a short open one, where we had to use a flashlight and squeeze through carefully. I still hit my head. We then went across a huge square, which our guide told us used to hold all the water for the city, which would actually drain out through the tunnel we had just walked through. A little scary to think of. Then we climbed up a bit higher for an actual entire view of Sacsayhuaman, after telling the little children who lived on the hill nearby that we didn't have any candy for them. It was pretty amazing.

After, we went to a local chicken restaurant our guide had recommended, forgetting how he had mentioned that we shouldn't eat the salad until we were halfway through. It was still a pleasant meal with no complications, and on our way back to the hotel, we ran into a small parade making its way down the street, with dancing girls and guys with bells on their legs. They seemed to have some sort of saint on their shoulder, but we couldn't figure out which one, and no one else seemed to have any idea. It was like before, when there had been fireworks in Puno and no one seemed to know what was being celebrated because they have so many little festivals.

Tomorrow is the Sacred Valley and the train to Machu Picchu town, or Aguas Calientes. And the day after that is our final tourist day before a day of traveling to head home!

On the way to Cuzco

Early morning had us jumping on the tourist bus bound for Cuzco, the last major city we'd be staying in for our tour. We learned from our guide that the straight drive to Cuzco is only about six hours, but ours was going to be nine and a half with all the stops we were going to be making along the way. We were hoping they'd be good stops!

Our first chance to stretch our legs came in Pukara, where we visited a museum that contained Incan and pre-Incan stone carvings. We learned about the circular symbol for water, which was obviously one of the most important things in life for these people, and saw stone sculptures that apparently proved that the Incans did perform human sacrifice, often in order to send messages to the Gods in other realms. Probably not to eat them.

Not too long after that was a very brief stop in La Raya, which is the highest point along the road from Cuzco to Puno in the mountains at 4,335 meters. We did quite well up there, I thought, with no altitude sickness to speak of, but we were only there for ten minutes and it was a bit chilly. Not really a chance to run around much.

Then we stopped in Sicuani for a buffet lunch in a pretty area in the valley. They had a nice little waterfall flowing under the railroad tracks and a few alpaca tethered as pets. One of them again almost attacked JS (he swears he loves animals, and does go out of his way to try to pet every stray dog and cat wandering around the towns). And I have to say that before today, I always thought those people in Alpaca costumes with the long hair that whips around were kind of silly and not very authentic. But this one black alpaca looked exactly like a person in an alpaca costume, so I now owe apologies to all those people in costumes.

Another two hour sprint and we were at Raqchi, home to one of the biggest sets of Incan ruins outside of Cuzco. Probably the coolest stop along the way. We walked through a whole village of ruins, where they had their grain storage, where they lived, and the walkways that only royalty could pass through. The most interesting tidbit I learned was that the Incans were big on trapezoids rather than squares, so their walls slanted inward as they went up. I had just thought the ruins were leaning because of age, but they were actually built that way.

I have to mention in here somewhere that the landscape along the way was just amazing. It reminded me a lot of Scotland, with its magnificent hills. Really gorgeous.

In Andahuaylillas, we went through the cathedral that our guide said was the South American Sistine Chapel. It was very ornate, and very reminiscent of churches in Spain. Lots of gold leaf covering everything. But one thing that's interesting about a lot of these churches that I might have already mentioned is that the Incan civilization were the builders of a lot of these churches, under Spanish orders, and they put their own symbols of worship in them as well, such as the sun. I'm not sure how sneaky they were being, but you can see a pretty good mix of the two cultures even in the churches meant to convert the Incans.

Finally we made it to Cuzco! There were a lot of neat sights along the drive to the hotel. There is a giant bronze statue of an Incan leader (no one specific) in the center of one of the squares and a number of nice fountains. The back of our hotel also runs along the avenue of heroes, which has a lot of statues of the said heroes of Cuzco. We also walked to the main square for dinner and saw the cathedral and passed the temple of the sun along the way. We'll be visiting that tomorrow!

Lake Titicaca

Uros Floating Islands

There is lots of Coca tea to be had in Puno to help with altitude sickness, but I was feeling pretty much fine after arriving in Puno in the afternoon. It's an interesting-looking city as you curve down the hill in the bus toward it. Everything is very small and square and the buildings are mostly reddish adobe, built on hills with square windows. Everything leads downward to the dock, which is the main reason for the existence of the city.

Lake Titicaca is immense.  It's the largest lake in South America, and straddles the border between Peru and Bolivia. Our guide Manuel joked that the Peruvians say they have 60% of the lake and Bolivia 40%, but that the Bolivians say the opposite. It's also the largest lake at such a high elevation. Surprisingly, it's fresh water, though Manuel tells us it used to be salt water and much larger before the Andes mountains started pushing it upward. There are a number of islands on the lake, which feels more like an ocean when you get out on it. We got to stay overnight on one of these islands with a local farming family to really get a feel for the culture.

How the islands float

But before we set off for the real islands, we boated out to Uros, the floating islands. Pre-Incan people used to live out in the lake, making floating islands out of reeds and building houses and boats out of them. Today, the Uros live in the same way, though solar panels make a slight difference to their lifestyle.

We landed on one of the islands, home to a few families. Only the women were there to show us around, as the men had gone off fishing for food. Stepping onto the island felt a little questionable as the reeds crunched pretty well under our feet, and we sunk down a little with each step. But seeing as their houses and all their belongings were still floating, I figured we'd be okay.

A typical home

One of the women demonstrated how the islands were made. They find the drifting roots of reeds and lash them together, then crisscross reeds back and forth along the top, until they're pretty high able the water. They also add extra reeds to their houses to get higher above the water so it isn't as cold and so their things stay dry. They also now use cement pieces to put their cooking fire on, seeing as before there were many accidents lighting the islands on fire.

The islands themselves are pretty difficult to describe, though I've tried my best. Photos will definitely be the better explanation here.

After visiting the floating islands, we continued our boat ride out of the bay near Puno to the peninsula. The boat only goes one speed, which isn't the fastest in the world, so it took nearly an hour to reach the other side. This also helps to demonstrate the size of the lake, especially when we were just puttering around a tiny part of it.

Once landed, we took a small hike up to a local house, where they set up a beautiful table outside with a view of the lake and served us a traditional meal. I had my new favorite Peruvian food, which is quinoa soup. It had quinoa, obviously, but also carrots and potatoes, all home-grown at the farm. They also fried up some trout from the lake, though I opted for an omelet made with fresh eggs instead. JS loved the peppermint tea, where we put the little branches into our hot water and let it soak up the flavor. I found a lot of little bugs in mine, but shrugged and considered it extra protein.  Our walk back took us through where all the sheep were staked or running around as well as past the cows, who had mooed occasionally throughout the meal. They were only the first of many animals we saw on these farms.

After saying goodbye to the family, we got back into the boat and headed out toward the island where we would spend the night. Normally, the family comes out to greet you at the dock, but apparently they were having a problem with their water tank when we got there and didn't realize we'd arrived. Once they did, they showed us to the little hut we would be staying in, which was a one room circle with two little beds, covered in four blankets each. Even with that, the family asked us if we had brought out sleeping bags, as it became quite cold after the sun set and the only electricity they had were dim lightbulbs; no heaters. When we told them no, they gave us two more blankets each.

I was pretty nervous about the night at that point, but we wandered around the island a bit before Manuel took us to the little museum on the island which had been started only four years ago when the high lake water had revealed a grave site. The museum contained several skeletons of women not unlike what we had seen at the Chauchilla Cemetery. They were folded up in the fetal position, wrapped in excellently woven blankets, with their things ready to be taken with them to the next life. 

After poking around there for a bit, we hiked to the top of the island to watch the sun set from the ruins there. The hike felt a lot more difficult than it would have elsewhere because of the elevation, and I had to stop several times to catch my breath on the steeper uphills. But we had a lovely view of the sunset, and Manuel told us about the arch found at the top of the island, saying how the Spanish made arches over everything when they arrived to show their conquering. I only then realized how many arches we'd been seeing in the other towns, in front of churches and elsewhere.

After the sun went down, it was definitely cold. I had five layers on and was still shivering in our little hut. But after a hot dinner, again made from food grown on their farm, I dove under the covers, covered up my head, and slept as best I could.

I only tossed and turned a bit that night, and was happy to awaken to sunlight and warmth again. After feeding us a nice breakfast, we bid our family adieu, having presented them with our thanks in the form of some fruit and staples, such as pasta, rice and sugar, as well as a bag of American cookies, which they seemed pretty excited about.  Then one of the sons set up his sailboat, which was pretty much a rowboat with a homemade sail and mast, and took us across the water to another island, Amantani. We walked around the island a bit, seeing the local morning market and passing the main square as well as several schools. At one of them, we came across another group of tourists and a number of locals playing a friendly game of volleyball and decided to join them. After winning at that, my team then found it fit to beat them equally well at a game of soccer. It was a little rough playing in the higher elevation, but I again felt like I was getting better as time went on.

We parted ways with the other group and went on to another local home for another home cooked meal. But this time, we had to earn it. We went out with one of the women and helped take the cows out to a different pasture, which mostly only meant we walked behind the cows as she led them. I did manage to make one of them try to headbutt JS accidentally, though, as we were helping stake them down. We were really probably more of a hindrance than a help, but it was fun.

After a meal of fried cheese, rice, tomato and avocado, we headed back to our boat for the long ride back. It was pretty relaxing to kick back and nap a bit on the water. But tomorrow is the ten hour bus ride to Cuzco--yikes! Luckily, there will be a few leg stretching stops along the way.

Arequipa

Convento de Santa Catalina

Yay movies! Our bus was actually late, so I only ended up watching one movie before getting some sleep, but those buses are definitely as comfortable as a plane, probably more so because you can actually recline and sleep! JS and I were decently rested when we got to Arequipa this morning, so we dropped our bags, had breakfast at the hotel, then set out to explore.

The main square wasn't too far away, and once again there were a ton of pigeons around, with locals selling bird feed to draw them in. There was a cute little boy running around scaring all of them, which was pretty funny. The main squares in the cities are pretty standard--the town hall, a church, and a square with greenery and a statue in the middle.

Convent kitchen

We have also officially entered the land of no toilet paper. Yes, the hotels do have them, but anywhere else, you're supposed to bring your own. And even in the hotels, you aren't supposed to throw it in the toilet, but in the trash to prevent clogging. And that will be all I have to say on the subject.

The main thing we visited in town was El Convento de Santa Catalina, or the Convent of Saint Catalina. It's really a city within a city, with a lot of colorful walls and little nooks to wander through. The convent today is pretty tiny, consisting of only fifteen or so nuns, so the rest of it is open to the public for a small fee. It was definitely pretty, though I was happiest at the end when we actually got to go up on a roof and look out over the city.

Misti Mountain in the arch

After grabbing some lunch, we caught the tourist bus around town and spent some time at a bunch of different locations. We saw the famous arches, which detail why Arequipa is called the lion of the south; it's always ready for a revolution if something happens in the capital they don't like. We also saw the great Misti mountain, which is actually a volcano that is still technically active today, though it hasn't erupted for a few hundred years. But it was apparently smoking last year, and residents keep building closer to it. Bad idea. There is another chain of inactive volcanoes with snow on the top that we could see nearby as well.

The next place was a beautiful overlook of those volcanoes and the river below, with the city of Arequipa as well as much of the farmland nearby. I bought some of the local ice cream, which turned out to be cheese-flavored, much to my surprise. But it was actually really good! I think the local cheeses here are a lot more fresh than in the US. Not that that necessarily makes them better, but it's definitely different than back home.

Alpaca!

We also visited an alpaca inclosure, where they make products from the wool, and a couple more touristy places before being dropped back in the main city. After, we grabbed dinner and a show at a nice place about a block away from our hotel, where JS was adventurous and tried the alpaca meat. I had a bite and didn't like it much. But then I'm not really a fan of steak in general.

Spins

It was neat to see the dances that they put on, in the traditional garb. The hats are pretty crazy. There were three dances, and the first was probably the most funny in that the boys were playing alpacas and the girls got to hop on their backs and ride them around. There was also some oddly high pitched shouting during the dance, which kind of grew to be grating. The second dance was difficult, a boy's dance though one of the girls did it too. Lots of "hey!"s in that one too. The third was pretty flirty with the boys and girls, with the waving of handkerchiefs and such. Very cute. And the girls' skirts kept flipping up, which I'm sure was part of the appeal to the boys.

Headed to Chivay tomorrow. We'll see how we do with the elevation!

Chivay

We caught the bus to Chivay and realized that we were actually going to be on a tour instead of just being shuttled to a new place and being met by a local guide. That meant that there were lots of stops along the road to Chivay, which made the three hour drive much longer. But we got to see a lot of picunas, which are kind of like a cross between an alpaca and a deer, and then a ton of alpaca as we entered the wildlife refuge.

Alpaca!

I'm not really sure why it's actually considered to be a refuge, because all the alpaca are owned by specific people, but they do roam freely across the land for most of the year. But in early September, they are rounded up and shaved for their wool. And the way they round them up is they get a ton of people to hold hands in a circle around the alpaca, and then they make the circle smaller and smaller. Really interesting.

We've been coming across a lot of alpaca wool products, which tend to be pretty soft. They also have baby alpaca hair products, which aren't actually taken from baby alpaca.  It's just a measurement of how fine the hair is.  The other thing I learned about the alpacas was that they tend to travel in groups of maybe five to ten, but like with lions, there's only one male in the group. The lone alpacas tend to be the older males who have lost their groups.

Dance statue

We stopped at a store where they were selling cocka products, such as leaves and candies. It's one of the things that is supposed to help with altitude sickness, seeing as we were going high up into the mountains. I got some toffee, which was okay. But the leaves themselves taste pretty bad. I had a handful of them and only the sweetener makes it bearable. Otherwise, you're really just eating leaves.

And yes, before anyone asks, this is the same type of leaf that can be used to produce cocaine. But it has to be processed and a whole bunch of other stuff I know nothing about, so don't worry. No drugs for me.

After making it to the hotel, we changed and took a trip to the natural hot springs that are in Chivay. I was worried when we first got up there and could seriously smell the sulfur rotten egg smell. But once we got down into the pools we were fine. The water was warm and relaxing, and it felt good to kick back after time on the bus.

Local Market

After, we wandered downtown and found a bunch of strange statues along the main street.  Well, some were strange, but traditional I suspect. I'll ask the guide about them tomorrow if I remember. But the highlight of the night was definitely discovering the night market, where there were a couple little food stands all up and down the road, with benches to sit on as you ate. JS and I ended up getting a hot chocolate and sharing the bench with a few other locals, who had gotten bread and were dipping it in their warm milk. It was really cool to see the little stands and the locals eating dinner.

El Pozo del Cielo, our hotel

I forgot to mention how cute our hotel is. It's at the top of a hill overlooking the city proper, and has a bunch of little terraces and levels along with arches and stairs that make you feel like you're in the courtyard of a castle. Pretty neat! I think it's early to bed tonight, as we have an early wake up tomorrow morning to see Colca Canyon. It's deeper than the Grand Canyon! We'll see if it's also as breathtaking.