Alpaca Adventure

Today was a fantastic day of exploring.  We had breakfast at our hostel, then set off for the bakery Nate was so eager to have last night... and voila we found it!  Delicious truffles (chocolate of course), and some orange juice to get the sugar going.  There are so many cute hole in the wall spots for food, it was honestly had to narrow down where we wanted to eat!  After enjoying the tasty breakfast, we decided to explore Sacsayhuman (pronounced sexy women) and it was absolutely stunning.  We will upload the pictures as soon as we can, but it was full of Inka ruins.  And to go along with this post´s title, alpaca were everywhere!  Built around the 1400s (might want to double check that, we lost our fact sheet...), we were amazed at not only the view - it is placed above the city, so looking down you can see ALL of Cusco and the mountains that surround it - but also the sheer talent it took to place each and every stone to make it what it is today.  Tons of exploring opportunities in caves, secret passages, open fields, mazes, etc - just an amazing place to be.  Right next door, was White Christ - the largest statue we have ever seen (over 6 meters tall).  It also overlooked the entire city, watching down on all of Cusco.

Realizing all we had eaten thus far into the day was bread and a bakery item, it was time to eat.  Making our way down the path, we also brainstormed the possibility of seeing Machu Piccu in the next couple days.  Once we got back to the hostel we talked to the ¨travel agent¨ the hostel provides and unfortunately all the bus and train rides into Machu Picchu are booked for the next couple days. BUT we decided we would do our hike now instead!  So over dinner, we planned our hike.  We had guinea pig and alpaca cordon blue, and it was delicious; a little odd eating my previous pet and even weirder seeing the roasted animal right in front of me... but, as they say, when in Rome, or as we say, when in Cusco!  We will see Machu Picchu while in the country though, not to worry.

We are set to leave early tomorrow monring en route for the Ausangate Circuit, so we will not be blogging or in contact for a little over a week.  But when we get back, we will upload our pictures (already have 150!) and tell you all about the hike!

Until then,
Maddy and Nate