Once again an early start after an evening of strategic packing! We meet our guide for the day Marco and head to the bus, we drive up towards sacred valley through the area around archeological site Sacsayhuaman (or sexy woman as they say!!) our first port of call is to see a G Adventure project 'Women's Weaving Project' which basically maintains the old methods of weaving, some of the items made take up to a month to produce.
It's interesting to watch the process, how they take the Alpaca or baby Alpaca wool and create thread, then they die it using local plants for colour which are so vivid, then the weave or knit into hats, gloves, jackets, wraps all sorts. Well I need some gloves or the trail so it's time to get shopping. It's pretty much like being in Marrakech with bartering system and everything for sale, you could literally go broke with all the amazing stuff there. There is also Vicunya wool which is basically the most expensive wool I have head of, saw a shawl in Cuzco that was 2000 soles, so roughly £500!!! Anyway, I manage to bargain away for a pair of alpaca gloves and get a hat in the bargain! Why not.
We then head to take a look at the sacred valley and to visit the ruins of Pisac, and we start to experience a bit of the Inca culture with the knowledge from Marco and seeing how the Inca's created these amazing places we visit today. I also get my first taste of what is to come on the inca trail, camping toilets...!!! Hmmm... Glad I still have one more night of luxury in a hotel.
After Pisac we head to a fabulous place for lunch, all you can eat buffet or wonderful food and we get a taste of purple corn syrup with rice pudding... Hmmm, interesting taste not sure it's my thing but everyone in Peru seems to love the old purple corn. After we have filled our bellies, we take a walk around the gardens to see the Llama and Alpaca's and Mackaws, one of which is a real showman... He knows when the camera is out and likes to show off his acrobatics!!! Very amusing, I spend a good few minutes putting away and getting my camera out to see what he does... I know, small things hey!!
So the afternoon is a Pre Inca Trail test, the ruins at Ollantaytambo, we go through the lovely little village to the ruins and which I believe are about 2900m above sea level. I have to say, I'm not really noticing the altitude which is good, maybe the coca tea is helping in the morning... I'm not venturing into the world of chewing the leaves yet!! We head up the ruins, lots of steps... But I'm loving it, learning about the storage and agriculture, the 12 sided rocks, and the ingenuity of the Incas, we go to a wall with lots of what look like bricked up windows that you can fit your head in, we all line up each with a window and stick our heads in... 3, 2, 1, oooohhhmmmm .... It's really cool how it reverberates through the wall and we can hear all the sounds each of us make.
So, once we are done I get a bit of free time to explore the ruins... I'm keen to get up as high as I can but it's pretty windy. My quest unfortunately is prevented when it's starts to look a bit difficult to climb, I guess plenty time for adventure on the trail! So I head back down the steps and to the market. I decide to take our guide Yuri's advice and buy one of the local rain poncho's which cover your backpack too... I tried mine in Rio and let's just say its a waste of plastic!
Next stop our hotel for the night, sadly Bob and Jean won't be joining us on the Inca trail so we say goodbye that evening at dinner. We see them again at Machu Picchu in 4 days. We are all pretty excited to be starting the trail tomorrow, and keen to get one last good nights sleep before "camping". Let's just say it now, the only camping I have done is festivals and I gave that up after 2 festivals and now stay in a B&B with beds, duvets and showers. And As for hiking.... well this will be a first, I've done day walks but nothing like this. Thankfully sailing gear doubles for hiking except for shoes. Maybe I should have worn the shoes more than once before the hike, who knows... They feel pretty darn comfy despite the fact I have lived in flip flops for the last 2 months my feet still fit... Hurrah! I am ready for this....
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