Pigs, Panting, Pictures

Yesterday we went to the coolest ruins-they were all built up on the side of a mountain. Only 200 steps to the top! Hence the panting. haha.. it´s harder when you´re at a much higher altitude as well! We went into a Peruvian family´s home and iwas surprised mainly by two things: there were about 20 guinea pigs running around the kitchen floor (i told my mom we should get some for our kitchen). It´s a delicacy here so they are domesticating nand raising them. My mom and i shared a guinea pig starter for dinner and as i ate it i couldn´t help but hear the sounds of the guinea pigs and remember them running around. hahaha.. but it still tasted good nonetheless! The other thing that was interesting was that on a shelf in their kitchen, they had the skulls of two of their dead ancestors. Yet another thing I told my mom would spice up our kitchen a little.. definitely interesting to see the rituals and the superstitions surrounding them.

Today we started the day by going to this little town called Chinchera. We saw how they make alpaca wool and they showed us how they die the wool using natural plants and such. Very interesting. Bought some mittens in case I get cold later on (highly unlikely). Then we checked out some ruins that are surrounded by high peaks with glaciers on top-beautiful!!

Afterwards we went to Moray, which is circular terraces going deep down into a valley. It was quite a hike do wn and once we got to the terraced part, we climbed down their version of stairs w hich is rocks jutting out the side of the wall.. kind of hard to explain, but definitely an interesting experience, especially for the wider and higher gaps bet ween the steps!

Our last stop was the salt mines. SO interesting! They make all these little pools where the water goes into and then the salt solidifies and comes to the top. I took some cool pictures (least they were cool on the digital screen). It´s just white squares all over the mountainside.

Tomorrow we board a train to take us to Machupicchu, the best of all Inca ruins, right on the top of the mountain-i´m super excited for it! We stay there fo r night and then on Monday we fly to Ecuador where we will be in Quito for aday and a half and see some relatives and then fly to the Galapagos Islands where we will board our sailboat! Probably won´t get internet access onthe sailboat, but you never know! Now Í´m off to go swimming in the frigid pool! Fun!! Miss you all and hope all is well at home!

P.S. Still sick.. haha.. just in case anyone was wondering. :)