Entry #12 Life After Ayacucho!

So as many of you know I'm back in the USA and this is going to be my last blog about my time in Peru, so get settled, it's going to be a long one!! I left Ayacucho on January 9th to meet my mom, who came down for a week to travel all throughout the Sacred Valley, Cuzco and Machu Picchu. However in Ayacucho there are only 4 flights in and out a day, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. But since it's the rainy season the afternoon flights are usually canceled because the storms roll in across the mountains. The previous day had been just beautiful, Amelia and Caitlin had gotten out with no problems to go to Cuzco, so I just knew that we were going to have problems getting out. And sure enough when I woke up it was the second day in the whole 4 weeks that it was cloudy in the morning, so I knew something was going to happen. We leave for the airport at 6:15 and I was supposed to be meeting my mom in the Lima airport for our 9:30 flight. We we're checking in the wonderful staff of StarPeru informed us that our 7:30 am flight was now scheduled to depart at 3:30 PM. The reason being for the delay was because they were repaving the runway. YEP. Repaving the runway. Only is Ayacucho, Peru would that EVER be the problem. Why couldn't they have done it the afternoon before when it was super nice and sunny ensuring that it would be fully functioning in the morning? So now we're all driven back to the house to sit and wait for 8 hours. I have to frantically try to get a hold of my mom who was in Lima, and I instructed her to take the flight to Cuzco and I'd have to spend the night in Lima because the last flight from Lima to Cuzco was at 1:45 pm. . . before my Ayacucho flight ever takes off!

Anyway, such a mess, my mom and I finally met up at the Cuzco airport and we headed straight towards the Sacred Valley, the main area of the Incan civilization - Cuzco was actually the capital before the Spanish conquered them. Lorenzo (our driver) and Jesus (our amazing tour guide) inform us as we drive along the canyons, stopping to let us take pictures of the gorgeous landscape. Everything is green, it reminds me of the movie Land Before Time, with this roaring mud colored river called the Urubamba, which is actually the mouth of the Amazon, and very vas mountain ranges. Some have snow caps, but most peaks are hidden behind rapidly moving clouds. The whole place is magical. Our first stop was one of the most magnificent sights I'd ever seen. An almost 13,000 ft. mountain littered with these perfectly preserved or restored Inca terraces. Pisca is the name of this small town, and women are waiting as we pull up to the entrance of the ruins each one of them holding what I guestimate to be around 40 lbs worth of the exact same merchandise. Of course my mom gets hounded by these women with her lack of spanish but excellent talent to want to look at everything, she was like a mouse being pounced on by cats! She agrees to buy a head strap and we proceed. This is my first encounter with the Inca ruins and it is seriously mind blowing! The way the HUGE terraces trickle down the steep mountain side and the way the rocks perfectly fit together like a lock system that not even a blade of grass can penetrate in some areas! Jesus tell us that Pisca was one of the Incas main agricultural areas and not many people actually lived where we were it was just for farming. There is an excellent waterway system that is still running! An area where the imperial family used to wash or give to the gods- a reason why the majority of their buildings were so high so they could be closer to the gods. We get to an area where one can look down both sides of the mountain, on one side, facing south are the vas terraces and on the other is a small waterfall cutting into a little valley. On the opposite mountain wall you can't help but notice holes everywhere in the side of the mountain rock. Jesus tells us that this is where the Incas would mummify and engrave the dead. The Spanish looted all these tombs, stealing everything ounce of gold the Incas had, but the holes are amazing. The whole Sacred Valley is amazing, extremely lush with not only vegetation but as well as animals and humming birds - they're everywhere!! We leave the ruins after spending a good almost 2 hours wondering around to go to this local restaurant to eat some local lunch! The whole place was amazing!! Right on the river, Lorenzo, Jesus, my mom and I ate outside in an enclosed porch, because inside was super noisy and outside was tranquil. The food was amazing too!!! Quinoa soup, corn, avocado, pollo, anything you could dream of! Then after lunch we drove along the river towards our hotel, stopping to look at more Inca ruins - they're seriously everywhere! We finally arrived just as the rain started to a small village called Yucay. As we pull onto a street we stop to grab one of the workers because he was going to show us to the hotel. I had no idea at the time why we had to pick up this old little man until the van stops at a dead end - we get to hike to our hotel!!! It is completely unreachable by car, one must hike along old Inca waterways just a short 5 mins, in the rain mind you but no big deal. Huge 20 ft Inca terrace walls are on your right while fields of potatoes and corn pass us on our left. The path is narrow so we watch out step. Finally we make it to a small flight of stone stairs and as we ascend the most enchanting place you've ever seen in your life awaits you! Suzy is the owner who speaks fluent english thanks to a British boarding school from the age of 10, but she's Peruvian and wont let you forget it! Palm trees and mowed grass, a few small separate spanish style adobe buildings only linked by connecting roofs sit pleasantly against an enormous mountain beckons for visitors to explore the once Royal Inca palace. Suzy invites us for tea and tells us all about how she acquired this wonderful property and what it's meant to her. She dines with us too since we're the only guests- the place can only sleep 6 guests total. Suzy is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu when she was 17 so she knows her way around a kitchen, so you can assume the food was amazing! Because of the high altitude Peruvians eat their larger meals at lunch time and a small tide over for dinner to help with digestion, so we ate a wonderful soup, equivalent to squash but the best thing I've ever tasted! The next morning Suzy asks if we'd like to take a walk about the property and the surrounding lands to get a feel for the place - so we being the next morning with a nice walk for about an hour. This is taking too long for one blog so i'm going to do it in two, sorry.
More to come!