On awakening and heading to the dining area where my Macbook Pro is plugged in, there was very loud music and some voices and as it got nearer to our building I looked down and it was a garbage truck. The forecast is for a high of 20 degrees Celsius and humidity at 63%. Lana rinses the store bought blueberries using tap water. That is a huge risk for us North Americans as it exposes us to local bacteria which is unfamiliar to our digestive system causing health issues. She then dries them off and again rinses except the second time is with bottled water.
We are at the Temple of the Sun or the Royal House of the Sun at Ollantaytambo Incan Citadel. 
Our homemade breakfast of fruit salad. Also, toasted bread with strawberry jam.
Funny, but this morning there was an actual concierge on the ground floor (Level -1). He was an older fellow who did not speak English, but I figured out we were supposed to park on spot #3 and not spot #1 that our Airbnb host told us was appropriate. When Lana came down in the elevator she was startled when he said buenos dias to her as she wasn't expecting to see him sitting there. He is a good guy! We are driving to Ollantaytambo for the day. In my research this is one of the top Incan sites in the Sacred Valley.
Google Maps for Cusco lower right to Ollantaytambo top middle. 61 kms and 93 minutes drive. Of course that means I have to beat that time!
My key destination in the Sacred Valley of the Inca: Ollantaytambo which as you can see from above is distant from Cusco.
Map showing Ollantaytambo relative to Cusco city and then Machu Picchu.
We left Cusco around 10:10 and arrived at 11:25 so I easily beat the estimated duration of the drive. The long drive here was very interesting with the terrain and extreme variety of roads. In driving out of Cusco which takes a long time, there were some very gritty neighbourhoods. Lots of garbage beside the main streets, many stray dogs roaming and barking and ramshackle buildings. Some of the roads are brutal. Huge potholes, missing pavement, speed bumps in the middle of nowhere etc. Lots of vehicles need to be passed. It takes a while for us to get out of the city limits of Cusco as it is quite extensive.
Eventually, we are driving in a very wide and flat valley filled with farms, towns and other agricultural enterprises and farm animals. We come into one town and Policia are pulling over vehicles. The cop in the middle of the road waves me to stop. I stop and roll down my window and ask "Do you speak English?" Bingo, . . . he then waves me forward to keep going. Hmmm, the magic words I guess?
For about 20 minutes we are driving in a narrow canyon with lots of twists and turns, but fantastic road. I wish I had a Porsche at this moment or a motorcycle. Small creek at one side. Not much traffic and the pickup truck we were following was going at a good speed. In fact at one straight spot we got up to 99 km/hour! Come to a bridge and then turn left as we are now headed officially to Ollantaytambo. Closer to the town there are huge cobblestones that make up the road so super bumpy and automatically slows everyone down.
We come to their Plaza de Armas (always the Peruvian name for the main square) and decide to park in front of the Policia station. Within minutes a Police officer tells us to move our car, but waves in a direction where we can find Parking? We do find parking on a side street close to the main square although we are never really sure if it is legal street parking?
Lana not feeling great after another windy road so needs to have a nap to feel much better and 30 minutes she awakens right at 12 noon. While she is napping I am using Google Maps to figure out walking distances for the sites I am wanting to see and update my journal. When we get out of the car I really smell a bakery and it smells divine! That has to be our first stop.
Pasteleria Y Panaderia Valle Tumi (bakery) is producing these yummy aromas! We are intrigued by many of the items behind the glass. The fellow speaks into our Translate app so we figure out most of the goodies. We buy three items and vacuum them at a bench a short distance away. The sun is hidden in the clouds and slightly breezy so time for a sweater.
The bread rolls in the above bakery baking in oven on rotating racks - genius!
Lana took this pic surreptitiously as we were thinking these young local ladies may charge for having their picture taken in their native garb? Many of the locals wore these flowery hats.
This is their main square (Plaza de Armas).
In case you were wondering this is not a real person but a flower planter. Lana asks if we can get one!
On the left is Joelle (from Cape Breton) his fiancee Sarah from Port Hope and Dalton behind Lana living in Ottawa and working in a very senior job in government. We have mentioned them in previous blogs. We believe they may think we are stalking them! What are the chances we would run into them again! We are so happy to see them again and had a good chat while they ate their lunch and lots of laughs. They will be in Cusco tomorrow so we hope to meet up for lunch or drinks. Lana wearing her knee brace over her pants.
Lana wants to give this stray dog celebrity status as she thinks it looks like a Japanese Akita. Somehow this royal Japanese dog ended up on this side of Latin America. It is a good poser though!!!
When you enter the site this dominates everything and when approaching this site from the street in the village it looms over everything. Basically terraces somehow made into the side of the mountain.
On entering the site you need to follow the areas that direct you up and then on the way down arrows that show you the proper way down. Many stairs to climb and lots of elevation gain. I love the stone work here.
OK, how did the Incan culture form these gigantic stones and to fit them so well that you cannot even put a piece of paper between any of these giant stones? Mystery to me especially now that I have seen it myself. Current Peruvians could not manage this.
Granary shed above the citadel and into the mountain.
Again, more magic from the Incan workers. Perfectly flat stones that mesh with each other seamlessly. Plus, each stone is huge and must weigh quite a lot.
As you can see from my decision to take photos I am totally intrigued by this work by ancient peoples.
The famous Temple of the Sun. Of course, this is when I wish I had an english speaking guide. Online I read "Made of pink granite with windows aligned to the sun on the solstice's." OK, makes sense.
People in the picture to give you an idea of the scale of the Temple of the Sun.
I took this pic to provide what is down the side of the mountain below this Incan fortress on the one side. Flat valley with many farms and it is green!
More granary sites that are across the way and above the town. Built and used by the Inca for storing grain. There are still trails up to each granary site and some tourists could be seen on the trails.
Just an example of the fact that some of the areas were off limits for us hordes of tourists. As an aside the amount of tour groups and tourists grew exponentially as the afternoon rolled on. In retrospect we were lucky to arrive when we did in the morning. We found parking and not many other tourists.
I had read that the Inca were masters of irrigation and engineering of water runoff. This is an example that still exists centuries later!
OK, we had seen the key ruins, but I wanted to see Quellorakay and the Choco Museum which was more about eating the delicious Peruvian chocolate. We started trying to walk towards Quellorakay, but the beginning was under roadwork and the alternative route ended at a hotel. So that was out. We walked to the Choco Museum and it was locked up. Second strike. We figured it was late so time to find some shade and eat our lunch.
We walked to the main square and found a bench under a tree so well shaded. We ate our sandwiches. It just happened that an American couple that I spoke with at the top of the citadel was changing their clothes nearby so we struck up a conversation. He was from New Hampshire and she from Colorado. He organizes tours and treks and they were here checking out potential partnerships. They had some exciting treks planned.
Lana was eager to eat a paleta (popsicle) and I hoped for a chocolate ice cream cone. This modest cart was within a few metres of us. Nice lady doing business. Another observation is the people in Peru are very kind and honest.
Proud owner of a strawberry and mint paleta and my chocolate topped cone. Both were tasty although not what we were used to in North America.
Time to leave and beat the potential rush of dozens and dozens of tourist vans/buses. The town itself was chaos with these tourist vans driving around aimlessly as there was no parking available. Plus, there were so many more people roaming around. We decide to set our Google Maps for the rental car return near the airport. We don't have to return the car until 19:30 but it doesn't make sense to keep it longer than needed. Pretty uneventful return trip on the exact same roads except for when we are in the city of Cusco. Plus, we need to find a gas station to fill the tank to 3/4 full like it was when we rented.
This is the infamous road sign that signifies there is a speed bump. Of course, there are a number of speed bumps with zero signage. Plus, there are signs with no speed bump around! What the heck? It takes Lana telling me about the signs as she was getting whiplash from me jamming on the breaks as I was too close and too fast! Lana is a great navigator, does that make it better? She tells me that this isn't a sign for a bed and breakfast in case I thought it looked like someone sleeping in bed.
The traffic in the city of Cusco is its usual chaos although I am pretty adaptable to that style of driving. There are times when I feel like a race car driver as I weave in and out of traffic passing on both sides of vehicles. Living the dream...
Lana finds a gas station that happens to be almost right across from our car rental agency. We only need to get it to 3/4 full. That takes some explaining and we eventually figure out we will just feed the gas jockey Sol cash until the tank is 3/4 full. She probably thought that we were crazy. Lana felt bad and used her translator app to say "so sorry for the extra work and calculations". She smiled when she read it. Man, those gringos! It eventually costs 78 Sol at Penco. Now how to make it across the street to return our car. Well, I am going to drive like the locals. This means I nose out into oncoming traffic until both lanes stop and then I look right and dart into that traffic. Lana says her heart skipped a beat as I was cutting through 3 lanes of traffic and then merging on the other side. Voila, we are now on our short trip to the car rental. Lana almost had a heart attack.
Our car is undamaged believe it or not. Edgar eventually answers the door as he was not expecting us this early. He checks out the vehicle and cancels our advance credit card hold ($1200 USD!!!!) and charges us $80USD for the two days. Great guy and he gets us a 'taxi'. This involves walking out to this busy street and waving his hands like a crazy man. An unmarked car pulls over driven by a young guy. Edgar gives him our Airbnb address and confirms the price as 8 Sol. I would be willing to bet that at the airport one block away the cost would be 30 Sol minimum. There is always a danger with an unmarked taxi, but Edgar had confidence and he took the exact same route we took from the airport. Uneventful trip right to our apartment and we were able to give our driver basic directions once we got close--good that we are recognizing the landmarks close to us.
The concierge buzzes us into the apartment and we are quickly up in the elevator. Time is 17:15 and within about 30 minutes Lana is hungry and wanting to figure out a restaurant for our much earlier dinner tonight. We check "restaurants near us" Google search and there is nothing that is less than 16 minutes by car. We reach an agreement to just walk our neighbourhood to find a casual place and then bring the food back to the apartment. Out we go and quickly come across an extremely modest street food place called Pollito Brosther where the lady makes the food in a small buggy right in front of your eyes. I guess it isn't really street food as they had very casual chairs and tables inside. Total cost for our order was 23 Sol being around $8CAD. Wow, what a deal! PLUS, after ordering we were walking away within five (5) minutes. What the heck happened with mañana time here?
That is the chef with her back to us and her store front work area. In this little cart she has fried rice, noodles and two different frying vats--one for chicken and one for potatoes.
This sign pretty much covers most of what she can provide although Lana ordered the Chafe Especial but it wasn't available so she opted to have just fried rice.
Close up of the deep fryer area and a container of fried rice and another of noodles.
Lana's custom order of fried rice with one fried chicken piece. It was definitely fusion-fried rice--didn't taste Chinese at all--different spices but it was very tasty nonetheless.
Randy's order of fried chicken and french fries. The fries were wet and flimsy so a no go there. The fried chicken was excellent being most and well seasoned.
This is the earliest dinner we have had since we arrived in Peru. Plus, the most casual meal that was served super quick. For today 8300 steps and 25 floors. We have no car tomorrow and walking around this neighbourhood to anywhere would be a long walk one way and there are some sketchy areas. Good chance we will be using lots of taxis. Also, tonight will be the first time we have kept the blog current.
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