Wow, we have had an amazing few days, if you discount us both having upset tummies and me passing out in a restaurant (due I think to said tummy upset, no food for 24 hours and possibly dehydration).
Our first trip to the Sacred Valley started with a visit to a silver factory in Cuzco. I love silver jewellery so really enjoyed this. Needless to say I had to get something which was a ring, necklace and bracelet - real Peruvian silver, so you can only get here, to be honest, Dave brought me two of the items and I brought him some cufflinks.
From the factory, we drove out of Cuzco to Ollantaytambo, stopping on route for photos and for lunch at a workers' collective, where we brought some more items, including a table runner, which we thought was about £30, but we had miscalculated and was, in fact, £75! All in a good cause though.
We had a traditional lunch of veg soup followed by chicken, corn bread and baked potato. We also had coca tea.
We stopped again at a little place which made traditional corn beer; I preferred the one sweetened with berries.
We also played a game while we were there, basically throwing counters into holes to score points, if you managed to get a counter into the frog's mouth, you gained maximum points. Yours truly won out of the two Aussie ladies, Dave, our guide Luchio, the driver of our minibus (whose name we cannot remember) and Norma from the Intrepid Office.
We arrived in Ollantaytambo late afternoon and checked into our hotel; we have been very pleased with our accommodation and this was no different. We went out for a meal with group, although my upset tummy had settled in by this time.
Next day Dave and I walked around village, but I soon had to return to the hotel and our room and bathroom! Dave went out to walk up to the Inca terraces, he got some amazing pictures and I was sorry I could not make it.
We returned to Cuzco (I had taken medication) as we had the rest of the day and also the following day free, which was just as well, as Dave came down with tummy bug too. Therefore, we did not do anything much for the next day and a half other than recovering from this bug.
Yesterday, 8 February, we went back to Ollantaytambo to catch a train to Machu Picchu, which took 90 minutes. Train was comfortable and the scenery amazing; the train runs alongside the River Urubamba, which I can only describe as a fast, torrid, deep, swirling mass of water. Machu Picchu is set in cloud forest, so the change of scenery was stunning. We were staying in Aguas Calientes overnight before going up to Machu Picchu this morning - The overnight accommodation was the most basic yet, but clean and fairly comfortable. We went to the hot springs in Aguas Calientes, which was a bit of a hike, but worth making the effort and we enjoyed the dip.
This morning, we were up early to catch the bus up to Machu Picchu; this took about 30 minutes. We were met by our guide, Wellington, who was to take us round the site and explain the history. The next bit is difficult as I don't know how to describe Machu Picchu, other than with the following - stunning, amazing, awesome, unbelievable. We were also very lucky with the weather, as it was hot and sunny which we understand is not always the case, and as we left some 3 hours later, rain started to fall. The views were out of this world and loads of pictures were taken. We also did a lot of walking round the site, up incredible steep steps to admire the views and the Inca's handiwork with terraces, temples and irrigation. At one point I asked Dave to pinch me as I could not believe where I was!
We are now back in Cuzco and have a free day tomorrow, when we plan to visit some sites that we were going to do on our last free day, but could not do because of upset tummies!
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