Day 3
Cesar met us in the morning and took us to the the cathedral and the sun temple. Obviously, both are impressive but we rushed through them. My favorite part was a painting in the Sun Temple by Miguel Araoz Cartagena, it represented the Seqe system.
The driver picked us up as soon as we were out of the cathedral and we left Cusco for Chinchero. We stopped in this little town for more Incan ruins and a demonstration on how textiles are naturally died. Surprisingly, this was a very fascinating demonstration. Some of the dyes were extremely vibrant and came from mixtures of all organic materials. One bright red dye came from crushed of insect carapaces with lemon! It was extraordinary, and the women who demonstrated was very funny. She made a number of jokes about kissing men. She was definitely the horniest person we met on the trip.
We drove to the Moray agricultural ruins. I found this site really interesting. It was basically an Incan agricultural laboratory. I would have liked to have spent more time there, but our guide rushed us through it, because we were behind schedule. We took some time time to admire the Andes Mountains and left.
Next, we drove to the Maras Salt and took a hike through them. I thought this site was fantastic. There is a font of salt water than runs from the top of the mountain. Locals think it is a natural spring that runs along a salt vein. Terraced pools have been cut out of the mountainside, and the water collects in the pools. Eventually the water evaporates and the salt is left in the pool to be scraped and sold. It is a really beautiful scene.
We drove on to Ollantaytambo to climb the ruins in this town. These ruins were really nice, and they loom over the small town, which give them an opposing feel. We stayed at Hotel Pakaritampu, which was my favorite on the entire trip. We ended the day with mediocre pizza in town, and a drink back at the hotel.