Day Two - Cusco

After a GREAT night's sleep, we started our day by meeting up with a new tour guide, Angel, and driving about an hour away from Cusco to see this place where the Incas used to tend terraced crops. If you saw it without knowing what it was, you would probably assume it was an example of alien crop circles. Visually it was very impressive. I was also really impressed with the steps they used between terraces levels called flying stairs. Instead of building the stairs perpendicular to the retaining walls, they built them parallel so as to not waste any land to plant on. Very clever.

Next were were off to the salt mine. Sounds kind of dull, but it was also very interesting. There is a stream that runs onto the property that is high in salt content. The local people have found a way to help the stream split off to several areas of the property so that there are many areas in various stages of evaporation. We were able to stick our hands in the stream and taste the water.. SO salty (duh, right?).

Finally we went to this town that is known for its textiles. We saw how the women turn dirty sheep's wool into died yarn and then into beautifully crafted fabrics all using things found in nature. After that we walked through the town and ended up in the most unexpected and gorgeous meadow with mountains on one side. It literally looked like the scene from The Sound of Music where Julie Andrews and the Von Trapp kids sing The Hills Are Alive. So pretty.

After dinner (my first pisco sour of the trip) and some shopping, it was basically time to call it a day. Tomorrow we leave Cusco to get a little closer to the Inca trail while we will hike the day after tomorrow. Yikes!