Thursday, 19 April 2012

Sacred Valley

Today we few into Cusco Airport (alt 11,000+ ft).  Given the potential of Altitude Sickness the idea is to immediately go lower to acclimatise before visiting the city itself.  I had to laugh at an American lady who confidently announced to her friends within minutes of leaving the aircraft that she was suffering from AS - I know it can come on suddenly but I'm pretty sure not that quick.

Firstly we visited the Sacred Valley (around 9,000ft)


These kiddies were more than cute and obviously used to dressing up for the tourists.

Then the local market at Pisac.


These two old dears looked like they'd fallen out with each other!

Where did you get that hat?

The place where we had lunch had a lovely (cuy) guinea pig house (what a shame they eat them).  

Although this looks like a whole batch of guinea pigs about to be roasted, they are in fact bread rolls.

The group: Christine, Stuart, Guide, Ellie, Paul, Ian and Derek.


After lunch we visited a couple of Inca ruins 


Including the most famous of all - Ollantaytambo, which involved climbing 280 steps.



Quite a tiring day and altitude has affected us both.  Our room at the Casa Andina hotel was quite a long way from the dining area and after dinner Ian had real trouble climbing back up the steps to reach it.  I was Ok apart from a shocking headache.  

Casa Andina, Valle Sagrado (Internet image)

Tomorrow we are going to Machu Picchu and staying overnight at a hotel near there so I´m not sure about internet access.