Pisac

The Peruvian and Cusqueñan flag (yes, it resembles the gay pride flag) fly high above the Pisac market Sunday morning.

On the road to Pisac, out of the bus window.

Alex and I sitting on some ruins in Pisac.

500+ year old adobe houses...still standing and incredibly intact.  

An aerial view of a Incan housing complex, complete with fresh mountain-water irrigation canals (that still work!).  The most noble Incans bathed in the baths located on the highest part of the mountain, as the water was the freshest and they were closest to the heavens and the gods.  Makes sense.  

Sunday, we took an hour long bus ride to a near-by town called Pisac.  It is famous for its open air market and incredible ruins.  I found an awesome tapestry and a cool new ring...and boy, can I bargain. For some reason I quite like it and am getting really good at it.  The vendors have no idea what they are up against until I open my mouth and they realize I can speak Spanish.  it is a great feeling.

These ladies sell their hand-made artisan goods on the ruins.

This is a lovely picture.  Perhaps my favorite of the day.  The Urubamba River snakes in the background and the ruins were just so insanely cool.

Here I am, perched on an ancient Inca ruin.  We watched the sun set from these ruins and it was the most glorious thing I think I have ever seen.

This woman happen to be selling some type of vegetable that happened to match her sweater exactly.  She was quite nice, also!

Here is the glorious Pisac market.  There is this incredibly huge tree in the middle of the market that seems to have seen many, many moons.  I love the contrast between the Spanish church in the foreground and all of the ancient Inca ruins on the mountain in the background.

We traveled here with an ex-pat buddy of ours, Simon.  He was raised on a farm in England and has the manners of a true English gentleman.  He has been living in Cusco for over eight years and works as a guide.  He is a super mountain-man and a food freak...so I love hanging out with him.  We are going to start a weekly tradition where we cook ridiculously good meals for each other.  Luckily for me, he is a great cook.  Unluckily for him, I am not so talented.  But I am getting better, I will have you know.

You need a tourist ticket to enter these ruins, which costs 70 soles, so we decided to pave our own path and bypass the guard at the entrance.  So.  We walked along an irrigation canal for about 45 minutes, teetering on the edge of huge cliffs.  For someone that is a fraidy-cat like me, it was an adrenaline rush.