Video produced/edited by Jami.
Hey!
On March 15th morning, we all woke up feeling a bit tired from walking yesterday. We all got ready and hopped on the bus. As the bus started to move, we realized that we needed to eat breakfast. We spotted a street food vendor selling sandwiches. Most of us got avocado sandwiches, while others got cheese sandwiches or egg sandwiches. We hopped on the bus again when we felt satisfied with the breakfast.
We arrived at Chincero temple. It was interesting because we could see the huge difference between Inca and Spanish buildings. The Spanish built their buildings above the Inca's buildings. We had to go down the stairs to get a good look at the Incas' building. There was a Spanish church, so we went into it. It seemed so old, and many paintings and statues were covered in cloth. There wasn't much to see, so we moved on to a place where we could see some women make textile clothing. The women showed us how to make a string from llama fur. It was fascinating seeing how they cleaned it using a root and pulled the hair to form a string. We learned they can make more than 25 shades of red using different methods. To make a darker red, they used ash. It was so cool, and we all learned something new there. There was a clothing store there, so we all went there. Some of us brought some things, such as bracelets or sweaters made from llama hair.
We hopped on the bus again and drove for around 30 minutes. We arrived at the zipline area. The view was beautiful. We were so excited to zip line around the area. We all listened to our leader, Sam. He explained the rules and put the gears on us. We lined up and got nervous when we learned we had to brake for ourselves while on a zipline. For the first zipline, we have to do the condor. The condor is our face facing down and "flying." Lani was the first to go. It looked like so much fun, so we weren't so nervous anymore. The second zipline is when we have to brake with our own hands. Don't worry; they provided gloves for protection. We must grip the zipline string when the worker tells us to slow down. We all learned the hard way that we should softly grip the string; otherwise, it would be like slamming the brakes. The third zipline was the most fun for most of us because we went down while being upside down like Spiderman. It was so cool. On the very last ride on the zipline, we had to brake again. Lani, Melanie, and Sean made it to the end until me. The worker told me to slow down, and she did. I braked perfectly this time, unlike the first time. The moment I hit the rubber bumper, I randomly swung. It was so unexpected, and the swing wasn't a normal one. It was rough and very high. We all laughed it off. That was the end of our zipline.
We drove to the Moray ruins. It was so cool to see because it is similar to terraces, but it's circles. It was beautiful. We learned that the lowest is for growing herbs because the altitude of it was the most fitting for the herbs. While the highest circle was for potatoes, it grows significantly in higher altitudes. We didn't stay there for too long because we wanted to see the Maras salt mines. We stopped by a place that showed a model of what it looked like. It was okay okay at first because we wanted to see the real one instead of a small model. There was a small store next to the model that sold the things that were mixed with the salt from Maras salt mines. There were some chocolates and chips that you could dip into the spices and mix with the salt. We all brought some things from there for ourselves and our families. It is finally time to see the actual salt mines! We could see the whole thing when the bus was on the way to the salt mines. It was huge, and we were all shocked because we had all expected it to be small. The bus parked, and we went up to the area that was similar to the balcony but way bigger and outside. We weren't allowed to walk on the salt mines, so we just took pictures and looked at them.
We got hungry from not eating for almost all day, so we went to get lunch. Our tour guide suggested a spot, and it was a buffet. The food was excellent and very filling. We all got almost three plates. We noticed that there was a "backyard," so we went out there. It was beautiful. There was a river, alpacas, and a place to sit. We chilled there for a bit until it was time to leave.
We arrived at Ollantaytambo. At the bottom, it looked so tall and far, and there were a lot of stairs. We climbed the stairs and took a few breaks due to the altitude. Our tour guide showed us some areas that the Incas built, such as the wall. The wall is perfectly sealed to the point where you can't put your credit card through it. There's no cement or anything in between the stones. It was so cool. We reached the top. We could see almost the whole city. We took some pictures until it was time to go back down. We all carefully went back down to the ground floor. Some stones were wet from the rain, so they could be slippery. We all safely reached the ground. On the way to our hotel, we saw a small market. We looked around for a bit. Our tour guide told us that it was time to leave. We all followed the tour guide back to the hotel. We entered the hotel, and it was very cozy and nice. We all went up to our rooms and chilled for a while until dinner. We went out and walked around to find a place to eat our dinner. We found a spot and got out for dinner. Most of us got chicken, and some of us got soup. We were so full from eating. We went back to the hotel and got ready for bed. We all called it a night.
Guess and see what we do tomorrow!
-Kaelyn