I barely slept. Both the altitude and my cough kept me awake (and Dee too - sorry Dee!) last night. I felt horrible... this cold has really got hold of me..
Kristen, however was worse. Her stomach has been bad all trip and she needed to see a doctor as it was not improving. So Dennis told us he would stay with her, while we all headed off for the day, and they would catch up with us later. But first he and I went out to buy some cough medicine. I need help and hopefully this will clear it up before we start the Inca Trail tomorrow.
The weather was rainy and our day's guide, Joel, bundled us into a minivan. We had a day planned in
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| The Sacred Valley |
the Sacred Valley comprising visits to various local community projects which G Adventure supports. The valley itself is a stunning fertile plain surrounded by steep mountains. The Incas built many terraces here, bringing the rich soil up the mountain to grow potatoes, corn and quinoa. Peru has over 3000 varieties of potato and 55 of corn in many colours, yellow, purple, white, red and black.
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| Dying the wool |
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| Ladies at the co-operative |
Our first visit was to a women's co-operative where they clean, spin, dye and knit or weave llama, alpaca and vicuna wool. We had a fascinating explanation and demonstration by one of the women, in Quechua (deftly translated by Joel into English). She showed us how they use a tree root for detergent to clean the fleece and then dye it with cochineal and other natural substances into a rainbow of colours. Next step is to spin it and finally use it to knit or weave beautiful scarves, hats, sweaters and throws. Of course we were invited to buy some of their products afterwards. Which, of course, we did.
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| Beautiful colours.. |
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| Pisac terraces |
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| Making clay |
Next stop was a community pottery near the Inca Pisac ruins: dramatic terraces set into a steep hillside with ruins on the top. I'm tempted to come back as we didn't have time to explore upwards. We watched how the potters make mud bricks for building, and how they refine the soil to produce smooth clay for making beads, whistles, bowls and cooking utensils.
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| Empanada heaven |
Finally after a delicious snack of home-made empanadas, where we all fawned over a hairless Peruvian 4 week old puppy (they are, as the name suggests, bald dogs, save a strip of fur on their heads, like a mohawk - cute, but odd looking), we went for our lunch at another community co-operative set up in 2014 to give local girls and boys new skills. It was the most delicious food we've had all trip! Wonderful quinoa soup, peppers stuffed and cradled in fried pastry, salads and strawberry jelly made from fresh strawberries!
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| Ollytaytambo |
Our final leg was to Ollytaytambo, a lovely old town deep in the mountains and home of the rebellious Manco Inca. We didn't have time to explore the ruins - just to stock up on essentials for the trek, which starts tomorrow.
Despite drinking cough medicine as if it was water, I'd now lost my voice and took to bed early again. I'm worried about doing a 4 day trek in the rain with a cold. Dennis said they can evacuate me if it gets worse - I hope to God I'm a lot better in the morning.....
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