My Dears,
The final leg of our journey consisted of a few days in the Sacred Valley outside of Cusco. It was nice to have some rest & relaxation time after the rather frenetic pace of the beginning part of the trip. We stayed at the Sol y Luna Hotel and it was lovely.
The hotel has acres of beautiful gardens, a pool, and plenty of space for the baby to run around and go crazy.
Plus you get your own little cassita. We loved it.
We spent a day exploring the market at Pisac:
It’s a sweet little town, full of twisty streets and gorgeous handcrafts.
We stuffed ourselves with empanadas:
Thus fortified we hopped back into the car for a ride up to the Pisac ruins. Which were interesting, hot, and windy. My advice: see Pisac before Machu Picchu. After MP, everything else looks small and uninteresting in comparison!
Sorry Pisac. You have very nice ruins. Really.
After that, it was on to Ben’s favorite part of the day: The Awana Kancha llama farm. He came away with two new words: ‘Hola’ [sounds like ‘holla’] and llama!! [sounds like ‘mama’]. The kid was llama crazy.
We also saw a gunaco. This guy leads a plusher lifestyle than his brethren of the altiplano.
Llamas at the trough.
We would have loved to have been able to purchase some of the tapestries crafted by the owners - they were exquisite! - but also way, way out of our price range. The quality - when compared to the stuff in Pisac - was phenomenal.
Back to the hotel we went. By far the best part of the Sol y Luna, from Ben’s perspective, was the horse stable and petting zoo.
We visited the horses several times a day.
You can’t keep this child away from the animals. These two were our very favorite.
We were also delighted to make the acquaintance of the resident chickens, rabbits, and assorted other animals that were housed behind the stable:
It wasn’t until the last day that we realized that they supplied the on-site restaurant.
No wonder the guinea pigs were so skittish!
Sorry little guy. You sure were tasty.
It was a great end to a lovely trip.
As Chris always says: 'I love going off to new places and I love coming home”. How very true.
There is nothing quite as lovely as your own bed.
And that, my dears, was our trip to Peru.
xxoo,
Sonja
Previously:
Part 1 - Arequipa, The White City
Part 2 - The Altiplano
Part 3 - Cruz del Condor and Colca Canyon
Part 5 - Cusco
Part 6 - Machu Picchu
Part 7 - Sacred Valley and Pisac
