Sold my sole for a guineapig

The first day of 2015 started early, albeit slowly.

I was awake from 8am after just 3 hour's sleep (stupid body clock!) and I woke Lauren just before 10am so we didn't miss breakfast.

The rest of the morning was chilled and then we arranged to meet Dave for lunch at "Jack's", a highly recommended restaurant on Lonely Planet, for all day breakfasts.

The recommendation was spot on and we stuffed ourselves with lots of delicious grub!

The rest of the day was spent chilling in our room and walking around Cusco which we're really beginning to love.

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Friday morning started early as we were collected by our travel agent for our day trip to the sacred valley.

The Sacred Valley was named by the Incas back in the 1400s. The Incas believed the sun and the moon along with water given from mother earth allowed them to live long and healthy lives. This particular valley supported excellent growth of crops of over 300 varieties of corn and over 3000 varieties of potato. These were sold or traded to provide all essentials for everyday living. The valley was their lifeblood which is why they named it the Sacred Valley.

Our first view of the Sacred Valley

The first town we stopped in was Pisac at the top end of the Sacred Valley, famous for its silver mining and subsequent jewellery. We only had 30 minutes so a quick coffee and a silver making demo followed by persuading Lauren not to buy the whole of the jewellery store was all we had time for.

We'd learned on the way about the way the locals make bricks from mud and straw to build their houses and also how they use the same mixture for plastering houses too so, when I saw this house, I thought I'd get a quick picture for the memory banks as you can see the Straw and mud mixture which is as solid as concrete.

The next stop was to be Urubamba, our first view of an Inca Citadel (town).  

On the way we passed some amazing Inca terraces cut into the many mountains.

Zoom in to the centre of the photo to see the terraces

Because Peru experiences 6 months of rainy season every year, this often causes landslides. The Incas used to lose loads of crops through landslides so they came up with an ingenious idea, to create terraces in the side of the mountain which would prevent landslides and make it easier to plant, tend and harvest their crops.

However, they didn't leave it there. They excavated the mountain soil from each terrace and filled each terrace with 4 layers; Rocks at the bottom, gravel, river sand and rich soil on the top brought in from the jungle.

These 4 elements were brought in manually by the Incas and occasionally they would use Alpacas to carry some but they could only carry 20kg at as time so it was quicker to use humans as they could carry more.

These terraces created micro climates (warm at the bottom off the mountain, cold and windy at the top) which meant they could grow a wide variety of different crops.

Urubamba is an Inca Citadel on the middle of the Sacred Valley which was abandoned in 1532 when the Spaniards invaded and overran the Incas, terrorising, killing and driving them away, mainly because they worshipped Mother Earth and were not followers of the Catholic faith. Makes Jehovah's Witness seem quite tame!!

The Urubamba ruins sit at the top of a mountain with outstanding terraces cut into the landscape.

Zoom in to see the ruins sat at the top of the terraces

These buildings at the top were used mainly for storing crops grown on the large terraces. 

Being at the top of the mountain, the temperature was very cold & perfect for storing corn and potatoes.

As potatoes don't keep well, the ingenious Incas developed a way to dry them which would make them 4 times as light and last in cool storage for up to 60 years! These guys were seriously hard working AND clever!

Lauren and I inside a storage room. Yes, it was cold up there!

View from the top

The clever Incas channeled water from melting snowcapped mountains all the way to their citadels by carving stone channels like these and lying them on top of each other and bring them underground.

When people died the Incas buried them in a series of tombs cut out of the mountain face. Look carefully!

When the Spaniards conquered the Incas, they ransacked all the graves taking any gold that the family had buried with their loves ones as good luck charms for the next life.

To give some perspective, look at me stood next to the wall of one of the terraces. They're HUGE!!

Lauren and I are not fussy eaters whatsoever (yes, I'm on about food once again!) and after leaving Urubamba, we were able to prove this once again!

Most will know me as an animal lover and a bit squeamish when it comes to eating animals that still look like they do when they're alive. Well, I may be on the way to being cured after the "John the crab" incident/meal in Ushuia.

5 minutes after leaving Urubamba our guide told us we'd be stopping at a roadside restaurant to take photos of the ladies cooking Peru's famous and  traditional dish, roasted Guineapig!

The ladies were very accommodating and were very happy for us to pick up the impaled household pets for photos.

Inquisitive, I asked how much they sold for and was told 35 Peruvian Soles (about £7.60).

I had to try one but, as we were literally driving to our lunch venue, I only wanted a bit. I quickly rounded up 3 others from our group, split the cost and asked the lady to chop one of the unfortunate rodents into 4 and we all tucked in!

It tasted surprisingly delicious and ticked yet another box off our bucket list for this trip!

You're afraid of the claw!

After a great buffet lunch the trip continued but Lauren and I were dropped at Ollantaybambo train station for our journey to Agua Callientes, the town at the foot of the world famous, Machu Pichu!

The train ride was stunning, running alongside the beautiful Ollantaybambo river, with amazing mountainous views the whole way.

We got chatting with Melica and Said from Sandiego (originally Iran) and before we knew it we had arrived in Agua Callientes. 

We were met by the local representative and taken to check into our hotel.

We'd got on really well with 2 other couples from the Sacred Valley tour, all of whom were due to stay in Agua Callientes that night too so I'd told them where we were planning to have dinner and later that evening they caught up with us and we shared food with Shane and Corinne (Oz) and drinks with Gary and Rachel (USA) later in the evening. 

Great laughs and lots of stories but we had to get an early night ready to start our climb to Machu Pichu at 7am.

Left to right, Corrine, Gary, Rachel, Me, Shane and Lauren.