The next morning we were picked up at 8:30 from our guide Willy for our white water rafting excursion. We ended up being the only people going which was awesome. We got to know our guides on the ride in and got to see the beautiful scenery around us. We arrived at the first compound where we got all the gear ready and we wet suited up. Our outfits were hysterical; we had on wet suits, wind breaker esque one sized fits all jacket, and then the most rotund life jacket I have ever seen. To top it all off we has beautiful blue helmets. Willy gave us the run down of the commands after we had gotten in the raft and gave us time to practice and then we were off. It was a really great first rafting experience and mixed relaxing rafting with more challenging rapids. It made all of us want to go again back home. Willy had us play several games which included jumping off a bridge, almost a rodeo type game where we stood on the back of the raft as it was spinning, and he made us body surf a rapid since it was all of our first time. He called it our rafting baptism. Did I mention this water was freezing. After we were done we stopped at the second compound where we changed back into normal clothes and had lunch. Lunch was provided by a woman in the local community and was delicious. We had a pumpkin soup, a stuffed chicken with mashed potato dish, and for dessert there was a crepe filled with dulce de leche and top with a tart berry.
After rafting our guides drove us to our hostel in the sacred valley city of Ollytantambo. It was super cute and is built on the ruins of an Incan city and you can still see snippets of it. Our hostel was called casa de Wow after the name of the man who owns it Wow. He is married to Winn (I know how precious are their names) who came to Ollytantambo from Ashville NC when she was 45 and never left. They are so cute in the fact that they fell in love with out speaking the same language.
We got settled in and our neighbor a girl named Emma from Montana came on by. She is on a trip with her parents and was relived to hear english and have others to chat with. We decided to go wander the town and Emma came with us we perused the markets and got some really great items especially our alpaca gloves with alpacas on them
we had an interesting time bartering prices down but got the hang of it in the end. After that we went back to the hostel and wrapped ourselves in alpaca blankets, beacause it gets really cold here at night, and talked. We met another woman staying our hostel names Felicia who is doing a short term study abroad. Then I was able to skype with Matt for a bit because the computer had a camera. I was a happy girl.
After computer time the five of us went and had pizza and pisco sours. Pisco is a traditional alcohol down here which I was told resembles a clear lighter brandy. A pisco sour has pisco, lime, egg whites, and bitters and resembles a margarita. After dinner we went to a bar that features pisco infusions and had fun trying different combos. I had one that had spicy peppers, mint, and honey in it.
This morning we hiked Picayluna which is a ruin that over looks the city. It was a good test for hiking in the altitude. We felt so our of shape because your heart rate increases exponentially in the high altitude. Tomorrow should be interesting with all the hiking. The view from the ruins was fantastic and we had a little yellow lab follow us, more lauren, the entire way. She named him mountain goat nugget.
After that we had lunch and hoped on our train that brought us to Auguas Calientes which is a town at the base of Machu Picchu. It is stunning here and there is a waterfall that runs through the whole city. We are heading to bed early tonight because we are waking up at 4 tomorrow to have breakfast and catch one of the first buses up to the ruins. Our goal is to watch the sunset. I'm pretty excited for tomorrow, its the focal point of our trip.
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