2014_09_16 Back to Cusco

Got up to see Luis and Chio and Paul and Laraine off to the train station in Ollantaytambo for their 1.5 hour ride to Aguas Calientes.  They will be visiting Machu Picchu either once or twice depending on their mood/health.  Not the best light - sometimes the sun is where it is!

Courtyard entrance to our hotel

The van taking our 4 friends to the train

River Urubamba behind the hotel.

Trail next to the river.

Indoor/outdoor swimming pool is above these fountains.

Walked to the other end of the hotel.  Waterfalls into many little pools.

Back in the room twiddling my thumbs.  This happens.

The plan for today is to have a late breakfast buffet and check out in time for a 1:30 transfer to Cusco by Mountain Lodges of Peru.  Along the way we will stop at the village of Chinchero where the residents still live in adobe and brick houses much like their ancestors.

A rare (portion) of a day of relaxation on a Rediker Travel Family trip.

Connie is feeling off and is back in the room.  The rest of us are around the indoor/outdoor pool.

Checking out soon!

On the way to Cusco we made two stops.  The first was Chincero were we were given a demonstration of textile weaving.  A high school aged girl made the presentation.  Her English was quite good and she had a unforgettable high pitched voice.  She lead us through the process of spinning yarn from different wools (sheep, alpaca, llama).  She then demonstrated the process of dying the yarn in pots over a fire on an old fashioned stove. Once the process is completed, different times for different colors it is permanent.  Most take from 45 minutes to an hour soaking in the boiling water. Native plants and flowers are used to create different colors.  I thought the most interesting was the red color.  They take a pinch of a parasite that grows on a type of cactus.  Spreading it on her palm it was instantly bright red.  They then add lemon juice to obtain many different hues of red.  She called the re “natural lipstick: and applied some to her lips.  She claimed that the dye is good for one day or one hundred besos (kisses).

In an open courtyard there were four women who demonstrated the different devices used to weave textiles.  Rugs, table runners, belt, etc.  The colors were quite beautiful.  Only Bobi bought anything a blanket that Connie put to good use in the van.

Next we stopped at a old Spanish church believed to be the first Catholic church in this area if not all of Peru.  As usual, built atop Inca sacred places.  No pictures allowed but I took a few of the outside.

Just prior to entering the church we saw an area of Inca stone walls that we being restored.  Actually, very little was original Inca stone and the rocks above were new.  This was quite an impressive site - lots of walls.

We ale saw two ladies and a man processing a huge pile of frozen potatoes.  One Sol got me this image.

It started raining on the way back to the van and the steeply sloped cobblestone streets were quite slippery.  Bobi was last in and she said she was getting pelted with hail!  Peru weather - be ready for anything….

We had skipped a lunch that would have been provided by the tour company and needed to eat something before we got back to Cusco.  Too close to our buffet breakfast at the hotel.  The driver found a fairly newly opened Italian Restaurant (    ) and it was really pretty good.  We had some spaghetti with tomato sauce, lasagna with vegetables and eggplant parmesan which we shared around the table.

An hour or so later we saw a different Cisco than what we saw near the old center of the town.  A bunch of road construction and crowded neighborhoods going almost straight up the valley walls.

Back to Torre Dorado Residential for the second time.  

We were taken to El Mercado Hotel very near to where we had stayed before for out trek briefing from Mountain Lodges of Peru.  We met our guides Admil and another Ricardo.  We also met the other 6 trekkers (young un’s) for the first time.  Yet another Ricardo!  They prepped us for what to expect during the trek and we were presented with water bottles.

After the meeting we went for one final dinner at Limo, overlooking the Plaza de Armas.  Sushi - Richie said it was the best he had ever had!  I had a plate of Peruvian fried rice with shrimp and scallops.  Yum.

Called for the driver from Torre Dorado and he was there to pick us up in five minutes.  We packed duffels we will take on the trek an left suitcases behind to be collected after the trek.