Today, we slept in. Mostly because it will be the only day in this entire week that we will be able to (hiking starts tomorrow at 5 am). Then we had a lovely breakfast that included more cocoa tea (coffee for Stu of course), eggs cooked to order, fruit, and a bread that boggles my bankerly instincts-- think crispy pita where one side is all bubble. Turns out the continental breakfast hasn't made it to Peru yet (thank God).
Today we decided to check out some of the closer ruins, just up the hill from where we are staying. This entailed more stairs, of course (we are so doomed) and the purchase of two boletas turisticos to get us in. The first stop was at "sexywoman" (Sacsayhuamán) which is an impressive set of fortress foundations sprawled across two opposing hillsides. We skipped the guide, knowing we would be seeing lots of ruins on our guided trip to Machu Picchu so we aren't sure what a lot of the things we were looking at might have been but we had plenty of ideas. We also found (and explored) a very intense tunnel by noticing some fellow touristas emerging from nowhere and Stu availed himself of a natural slide, though he had to navigate past some selfie-couples clogging the top.
Next we wandered over to Christo Blanco, which is a miniature plaster version of Rio's Christ the Redeemer. The irony of seeing it from the top of a pagan sacrificial altar was not lost on us. More interesting were the colorfully adorned Peruvian interpretation of the crucifix nearby. Our favorite was nixon-hand Christ.
The last stop on our local ruins tour was Qenko -- home to a mortuary and temple. The site was much smaller but had an intact alter that was naturally refrigerated. By that, we mean very cold because it was limestone that had been carved away from surrounding walls and was in another of those tunnels so it never sees sunlight. It stays at about 2 degrees Celsius. Despite our sordid assumptions, turns out it was mostly lamas that were sacrificed. Unlike the naturally cold alter below, when we wandered topside, I found a lovely sun-warmed stair carved into the debris. I took advantage and spent a few minutes soaking it in.
Then, chased back to town but ominous clouds and some threatening thunder, we wound our way across Cusco to a highly recommended Cebicheria (it deserves the accolades!!) We picked up a stray along the way who not only accompanied us all the way to the restaurant, but most of the way back as well. I can't lie, we tried to lose her a few times bc she wasn't as street smart as you might expect and we were full of anxiety for most of the trek. It finally took us losing her like a tail in a cold war movie to get free.
From there we decided to participate in another tradition- the afternoon siesta where we did a little napping, a little reading, and some repacking for tomorrow. We also did a little moping because we got pretty burned, despite our efforts to sunscreen in the morning -- Stu blames the altitude (something about UV absorption) . For dinner we found a local place where we could get soup (it's chilly here in the morning and evening) and try our first pisco sour. Muy delicioso. After dinner we grabbed ice cream and colored under the rainbow of cat umbrellas that graced the ceiling.
Didn't encounter any baby goats today-many apologies. And now we're headed to bed. Early to bed, early to rise. You probably won't hear from us again until we get back on the 24th but we'll try to keep the log up while we're on the trail.
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