Again, with alarms ringing in our ears, plus a wake-up call, it was up and in that big bus again to the airport across the road, for a 6am flight to Cusco. We had fabulous views as we flew high above the massive Andes ranges, which were often snow capped.
Jaime told us that breakfast would be after our flight, and it was a surprise!! Fortunately the flight only took 1-1/2hours and Cusco was going to be the highest altitude that we were going to experience. Consequently, we had been told to drink lots of water, chew on cocoa leaves and not exert ourselves!! On arrival we met Luis, our guide for the rest of our trip (along with Jaime).
Well breakfast was a feast at a very beautiful hacienda, called 'Casona La Princesita'. It was the home of a cocoa dynasty and after a truly fresh and tasty breakfast we were given a presentation about 'the making of chocolate'…. even had a taste test of four varieties J We moved into another part of the hacienda which was set up as a geographical museum and were informed by an extremely passionate, older member of the family about the early Inca's and their methods and techniques on growing their different crops which all related to the astrological calendar, land elevations, soils etc. – very interesting but the dear gentleman took forever and he was finally wound up by Jaime. We were all standing and by this time the altitude was setting in for some and were beginning to feel a little wobbly L
Back on the bus and we were off to see some llamas – of all shapes, sizes and colours, along with a presentation on spinning the yarn, colouring the wool and then watching the ladies who were dressed in their delightful and colourful traditional clothes. They were delicately weaving their intricate patterns into amazing garments – and there was also a massive and delightful shop, but with limited carry-on baggage, we had to just be content with window shopping L
Pisaq, one of the main fortresses during the Inca's time was our next delightful stop. Again, a market place filled with treasures, along with mothers holding gorgeous babies, and baby lambs, whilst holding out their hands for money for photos, which we obliged.
Another short bus ride to a very nice resort hotel, Ayasqa Restaurant, for a delicious buffet lunch of soup, hot dishes, salads, and desserts, whilst playful llamas jaunted around outside and peered through the windows at us.
Our final stop today was to the town of Ollantaytambo, a living Inca town. We visited the massive fortress, an important stronghold during the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru, and were awed by the immense size of it and wished we had more time to spend there to climb that steep staircase reaching to the sky.
We were booked into the hotel 'Sol Natura', which was fairly basic, but again it was just to shower and lay our heads for some more quick sleep. We walked around the marketplace and bought a small pizza, but could only manage a slice plus a sip of red wine J…. (this altitude stuff is good for the waistline!!). Alarms set for 5.30am and we couldn't hit the sack quick enough!!
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