Ollantaytambo, Ollantaytambo, Ollantaytambo, say that fast three times. I practiced a lot and now I can! There's an extra "y" sound in there that'll throw you off every time. It actually sounds like Olyeantaytambo. And now you know.
Day 2 of our Peru adventure included lots of driving and lots of stops. I loved every minute of this day. Driving through this country and observing everything happening along the side of the road was one of my favorite things ever!
Our first stop was this statue of Jesus overlooking the city of Cusco.
Heyyyyy down there, Cusco!
A random house on the side of the road.
Our first stop was a village of women weavers. Our tour company, G Adventures, sponsors it. They brought back traditional weaving practices and taught the women how to do it as a way to make money. Here's a house and some adorable children in the village.
Our tour guide translated as this woman took us through the whole community. Here she taught us about the symbols they use in their weaving.
I got to try my hand at one of these looms. This woman gave me her hat to wear so I'd feel really legit. If the hat is turned down, it means I'm married. If it's upturned, it means I'm single. All the women in the village wear them to send the appropriate signal to the men. Look out, men, this married woman is taking over this loom!
Passing the yarn back and forth was easy enough but the sequence of pedal pushing was more confusing. And can you imagine setting one of those things up?! The whole art fascinates me.
The women raise the alpacas and use the hair to turn into the string they use for weaving. They raise llamas, too, and we got to feed both the llamas and alpacas. In Peru, llamas are pack animals and alpacas are used for hair (should I be using the term "wool"?) and food. We had an alpaca dish in a restaurant and it was good! It tastes like beef tenderloin, with a hint of prairie-land.
Outdoors, the older style of weaving was demonstrated. These women weave eight hours a day. It takes a month to weave one meter of this tapestry!
This woman led us through the process of turning alpaca hair into string. Here she is shaving some kind of tree bark into a bowl to make natural detergent to clean the wool. (Hair?) It even got sudsy! So cool.
She showed us tons of seeds and dirt and plant matter that they use to dye the wool. It's incredible the array of colors they can create from natural materials. I was in total awe. Here she is taking a batch of string out of its dye bath.
Here are some women turning the hair into string. They spin and spin and spin it onto these spools.
Here are baskets of the raw alapaca hair and the finished yarn.
I could watch these women all day.
I could also watch their sweet little kids.
Here's one of the many stalls in which I went a little crazy trying not to buy everything. I ended up getting two scarves, one hat, one pair of gloves, a tapestry for my wall and a throw blanket which could also double as a really big scarf. All of that came to $150. These ladies need to raise their prices! If I hadn't only traveled with a carry-on, I think I would have bought more.
Back to the van!
Here we stopped at a place overlooking the Sacred Valley.
Roadside sellers. We bought a dolly for Sienna here. I could not get enough of all the great hats worn in Peru! Another thing I would have bought if I'd had more room in my bags.
The colorful traditional clothing was one of my favorite things to see. Absolutely stunning!
I think this is Pisac? Terraced hillsides used for farming by the Incas.
One of their dwellings.
For lunch we stopped at another G Adventures sponsored charity, Parwa Restaurante.
This place was in the middle of nowhere. It was so serene and the views were breathtaking.
Perfect day for al fresco dining! Good thing because the only choice is to eat outdoors.
Here's the food in pictures. I'll try to remember what it was. Here is some kind of potato-type thingy with a slice of quail (?) egg on the side.
Cheesy herb bread with a sweet tamale and berry salsa.
Black currant juice with added cinnamon and cloves, it tasted like Christmas! Some kind of soup? It was good.
Quinoa, potatoes and a chili baked into a pastry.
Dessert was a cannoli stuffed sweet cheese alongside passion fruit Jello. Tangy!
After lunch, Adam and Robert joined me for a game in which you throw a coin at a box containing a metal frog and other holes. You get the most points if it goes into the frog mouth. It's impossible to do well at this game. We had fun, though.
When the restaurant is thriving, G Adventures will step away and the restaurant will open its doors to everyone, not just G Adventures tour groups. Good luck to you my dear Parwa Restaurante.
This next group of ruins was in Ollantaytambo.
These walls of stone pieced together without gaps? Classic Inca.
Can you even believe the size of these rock slabs? Imagine them being heaved down a mountain side and across a valley and erected here, placed side by side, and sanded down perfectly to fit together. All of this was done by people much, much shorter than you and me. It is a marvel!
It was a lesson to me about the amazing outcomes of patience and persistence.
These stone slabs were abandoned when the Incas fled invasion by the Spaniards. Or smallpox. One of those two deadly things. (All the Inca sites we visited are melting together in my head.)
A-Ware about to climb the terraces.
That's Ollantaytambo in the background.
After our day of traveling and sightseeing we had time to wander O-town at our leisure. We walked through this open market around closing time. This is a cheese stand. Complete with adorable children.
No FDA regulations here, folks.
I love the smells of places like this. They're often what stick in my memory the most. And it's because the smells are often bad. Love it!
The hat! The braids! So awesome!!!
I guess I had trout for dinner? I don't remember the restaurant, but I do remember this meal was grub.
We stayed at the Inka Paradise hotel in Ollantaytambo. It was quaint.
Here's our room.
Here are the taxis in O-town. Batman for the win!
Babycarrying! Actually you could never see the babies in these things because they were always asleep at the bottom of the bag. So much cozier than a Baby Bjorn.
Pizza and wi-fi can be found in O-town.
The market was wrapping up for the evening so we didn't get to see much. Off to bed to prepare for the hike the next day!
