Monday, September 28, 2015

Day 8: The Journey Through the Sacred Valley

While we were sad that our days with the kids were behind us, we were also very excited to finally be making our journey through the Sacred Valley where we would end with a trek to Machu Picchu. It was an early morning for us, as we had a long day of traveling ahead of us. As we started our trip through the Sacred Valley, our first stop was at the Ccochahuasi Animal Sanctuary.


 The shelter was full of exotic Peruvian animals that were being cared for under the supervision of the workers at the sanctuary. We were blessed with the opportunity to take pictures with baby llamas, alpacas, and even condors!






The next stop on our journey through the valley was the Pisaq archaeological sites where we met one of our tour guides. We did a small hike through the area to learn about the ancient way of life here in Peru. The terraces were remarkable!








After the archaeological sites, we went to the Pisaq market, which was one of the top places we wanted to visit. We had heard about this market the entire week and couldn't wait to do our shopping. Once we got there, our tour guide gave us a meeting spot and time and let us run free through the market! Bless his heart, we can only imagine what he was thinking when our group of girls became giddy with joy after viewing all of the shops in store for us. We paired up with a buddy and went our separate ways, trying to see as much of the market during our time there.



Our last bus leg of our trip was to Ollantaytambo, which was a very small village where we would take a train to Aguas Calientes.


The train ride was a gorgeous hour and a half ride through the valley. We spent the train ride enjoying the view, playing card games, and doing word puzzles. It had been a long day of traveling, but we were all full of excitement still because every minute on the train brought us closer to Machu Picchu!


Once in Aguas Calientes, we were able to rest for a bit inside our hostel before heading to dinner with Juan and Vincent, our tour guide.









 We enjoyed a nice three-course meal, as Juan and Vincent prepared us for our hike up Machu Picchu early the next morning. We started to get really nervous about our hike when Juan and Vincent walked us through what to expect. After all, we were going to be making the hike up the mountain by ourselves, because our guides were taking the bus up!

We turned in early that night, because we had to be up at around 3:30 to prepare for our hike. Stay tuned to see our journey up over 2,000 steps to get to the top of the mountain!

No comments:

Post a Comment