temple of the sun + chi cha

After visiting the ruins we headed back to Cusco to tour the Temple of the Sun and the Cathedral. We relaxed a bit after lunch and then made our way to a large market. Stephanie, our fluent Spanish speaker, was very helpful when it came to bargaining (and a lot of other things). My parents did pretty well with their Spanish and Erin busted out her high school Spanish. I pretty much never knew what was going on. After a few hours of shopping we made our way back to the hotel and got ready for dinner. We had reservations at Chi Cha (by the world famous chef Gaston Acurio). It was a fun spot and the food was interesting and delicious. We were all ready to crash by 9 p.m. Those early mornings were catching up with me.

These school kids were really cute. They wanted us to teach them some English phrases.

Our sweet ride while we were traveling in and around Cusco.

There were several of these guys on a main street in Cusco. They wore masks (so nobody could identify them) and carried ropes to whip anybody that jaywalked. Really. We saw it happen.

Browsing the menu at Chi Cha.

Guinea pig crepes.

a few more ruins.

Friday morning we headed out with our guide to visit a few more ruins just outside of Cusco. The first stop was Q'enqo, a religious spot for the Incas where they performed a lot of rituals. The second stop was Saqsayhuaman. The stones used here are massive. And so closely spaced that a piece of paper won't fit through many of them. Some people say the complex was built to represent the head of a puma, but they pretty much say that everything looks like some animal. There were really great views of Cusco from here as well.

Approaching Saqsayhuaman...

Hiking Huayna Picchu

That steep mountain towering above Machu Picchu in most of the photos is Huayna Picchu (or Wayna Picchu). And I climbed to the top of it! Barely. We didn't have much time so we had to make our way up quickly. And practically run down. (We had to get back to catch our train out of Aguas Calientes.) The hike was crazy steep and exhausting. My dad and five-months-pregnant sister quickly passed my out-of-shape self and made it to the top first. Parts of the trail were quite treacherous and they had some cables at points to help pull yourself up (and prevent dropping off the side of the mountain). At the very top there were just huge boulders and rocks to scramble up. And a narrow cave to squeeze through. And of course some ruins. Those Incas must have been seriously fit. I was completely out of breath when I got to the top (and most of the way up) and my legs were like jelly. And then I looked around and saw all of these ruins. So crazy.

The views at the top were amazing. It was fun to get a different perspective of Machu Picchu.

Waiting in line to start the hike. They only allow 400 people per day do the hike.

I'm still not sure how we got to the top of this thing.

Some random strangers at the top.

Another stranger. But it illustrates my "scrambling up boulders" point.

Looking down at Machu Picchu.

Steady...

Seriously, how did they build this?

You can see the road the bus took to get to Machu Picchu.

We took the bus back down to Aguas Calientes and then the train back to Ollantaytambo where our driver picked us up and took us back to Cusco. We finished off the night with a delicious dinner at Pacha Papa where we tried alpaca, several different kinds of potatoes, and yummy fruit drinks.

On the drive back to Cusco...