We stayed at a place called Gringo Bill’s. An American owns this hotel/hostel.
The stairs we had to climb to get up.
On top, there is a really windy part. I wish I had worn a windbreaker that was too bit for me. I might have flown away.
Some children getting water from the aqueducts of the ruins.
From Ollantaytambo we took a bus to a market where we could shop and eat lunch. The whole group went to the same restaurant. I ordered but it was taking the waitress forever to get the orders. They looked like they were set up to accommodate a big group, but I felt like it was taking forever. I was hot and hungry (I hadn’t eaten in more than three hours, which isn’t good because of my gastritis problem) and therefore getting in a bad mood. Carla, from California, and I decided to go to a different restaurant. It was good food. I had a ham, cheese, and avocado sandwich and a crepe with chocolate ice cream.
I then went around shopping. Peru has a huge artesian market and a strong indigenous culture, so there’s a lot to buy.
I bought a charm for a necklace and earrings of the sun and the moon. That’s the symbol I love the most from Mexico. The sun and the moon were two gods for groups like the Olmecas and Aztecs who practiced dualism and parallelism, like the sun and the moon. So the Incas did that as well and their art of the sun and the moon are a little different from Mexico’s. I’m excited to add to my collection.
After the Artesian market we went back to the city of Cusco. The ride there was long, windy, curvy, and hilly, I got a little carsick. We stopped at more Incan ruins on the outskirts of Cusco. They were the same yet different from the other ones we had seen. The rocks were huge, absolute enormous. I think the biggest rock was upwards of 50 tons. All the rocks were excavated about 8 kilometers from the ruins site.
Jessie and I are super excited to be at the ruins site.
Me in front of a tall, skinny rock.
I took a picture in front of one of the tall, skinny rocks and this lady asked me. “Una fotita por favor.” (One little photo, please) and I told her yes and tried to take her camera, I thought she wanted me to take a picture of her and her son. As it turns out, she wanted a picture of her son and me. So I obliged and took a picture with her son, and then one with one of his friends, and then another friend, and then a group of girls, and then the mother of the first picture. I guess I’m pretty exotic looking.
At the end of our tour of these ruins, we saw a view of Cusco, the capital city of the Incas. As you can see it is raining in the middle of the city.
We went to our hotel located 2 blocks from the main plaza. We took a small tour of the plaza on our way to dinner. They had us stop by the cathedral and as I walked in this older lady put a button or something on my shirt and I didn’t really realize it and kept walking. She followed me and told me that if I wanted to keep the button that there was a mandatory donation. I gave the button back.
I went out to dinner with four other girls, we had oven-fired pizza. It was delicious. Then we wanted to find ice cream. We couldn’t find a place that was just for ice cream, so we went to McDonalds for McFlurrys. They were also delicious. I don’t think I could have asked for a better evening.
No comments:
Post a Comment