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After one week of Spanish classes in Cusco, Rich and I took our second week of Spanish classes on the road with our teacher and guide, Jesus. The road we took was through the Sacred Valley, which runs along the Urubamba river and contains many ancient Inca ruins and settlements. Pisac is the first stop along the Sacred Valley. The photographs
below depict the church (la iglesia) and cows (vacas) on the main square, La
Plaza de Armas.
We are not trying to make fun of Peruvian bathrooms, just show you that not everyone has the amenities that we have in the U.S.
We hiked through the Inca ruins of Pisac along a beautiful Inca trail where we walked through Inca doorways and tunnels and visited the Temple of the Sun (above left) and the Temple of the Moon (above right). Away from all of the ruins and the towns, sits a small village, way upon a mountain called, Cuyo Grande. We spent our second day in the Sacred Valley here. This day was so special, that we have dedicated an entire photo page to Marisol and Cuyo Grande.
We finally made it to Ollantaytambo, the royal estate of Inca Pachacuteq. Here you can find Rich and I playing at the doorway of what is said to be that of the Temple of the Sun.
A view of the Ollantaytambo ruins from a mountain on the other side of the valley (above left) and the Pacaritanpu (House of Dawn), a monument in the shape of a pyramid (above right). We hiked across the Urubamba river and up a mountain on the other side of the small town in order to get this fabulous view.
On our way back to Cusco, near Urubamba, we stopped at Salinas, which contains terraces of huge Inca salt pans which are still used today to fill the salt shakers in Peru. This view is from a mountain above.
Closer photos below show us running around the salt terraces with Jesus and our taxi driver...who ended up being really mean and asking for more money.
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Not
everything about the Sacred Valley is sacred; this includes the shared bathroom
at the Hostal Bejo, where we set up camp for two nights. The water only
worked for about thirty minutes the entire time that we were there. When
the water is not working, that red garbage pail is filled with water for you to
pour into the toilet to try to flush it (which did not always work). You
can also use this water to wash your hands and brush your teeth. If you look closely at the
shower head, there are electric wires used to make the water hot. Many of
the showers in Peru are like this. Talk about a shock! By the way,
if you have an entrepreneurial spirit about you, may we suggest you fly to Peru
immediately with nothing but toilet seats, because few toilets in this country
seem to have one. 
We stopped for a night at Urubamba,
which is a little town in the center of the Valley. On the left you can
see the town's Plaza de Armas and on the right we find women gossiping at the
Market.
