Today was a great day. At breakfast we reviewed our original plan, which was to take a 45 minute taxi into a neighboring town to visit a museum. None of us were very into it. We came back to our room and spent about an hour lazing around and trying to come up with a plan B. Nick wanted to visit some ruins that were about a 25 minute drive away and convinced us to go. We couldn’t find a taxi so we decided to start walking. It was a 1.5 hour walk alongside the river, and we didn’t have anything better to do so off we went.

We walked south, away from Ollantaytambo. For the first time it felt like we were out of the touristy part. We walked out through the original gate to the Incan city, and down old steps that lay beside the terraces.

We crossed a rickety bridge over the river, and then spent the next 90 minutes completely alone walking along a very beautiful dirt road.

I understand why this area is known as the Sacred Valley. There is something really magical about it. The air is dry, we’re surrounded by incredible mountains, and everywhere we turned there was something amazing growing. On our walk we went past avocado trees, corn drying out in the sun, large personal vegetable patches, pumpkins growing wild over the road. I stopped to pick a perfect fig.

We saw lots of animals: cows, goats, sheep, chickens, and ducks. But most of all we saw dogs. So many dogs. Most were cute but some barked at Millie and freaked her out. I loved this guy.

We walked past old walls, and saw this one with a staircase integrated into it. Of course Millie wanted to climb it.

We came upon a bunch of old ruins up on the hill, and walked up to explore in them. I have no idea what they are or when they’re from, but they were very fun to explore.

After what felt like forever, we came upon the train station we had originally transferred from our bus to ~5 days ago. We crossed a bridge and then heard the siren call of a microbrewery, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. We were hungry and thirsty and decided to stop for lunch before continuing on for 30 minutes to get to our destination.

The beer was surprisingly great, as was the food. We played at least 10 rounds of Crazy 8s, which has become Millie’s favorite card game.

After we were done with our beers and lunch, we went outside where Millie built with blocks for a while. It felt like hanging out at a brewery in Austin, except here we were in the middle of Peru.

Nick looked at me around this point and said “should we just skip the ruins?” To which I emphatically said “yes”. We bribed Millie away by reminding her it was ice cream Friday. We began the long walk back along the same road we came on. The walk back felt way faster because Millie and Nick ran half of it while trying to chase each other.

When we got back to Ollantaytambo we went right to the ice cream shop. I got a cone today because I wanted to try a flavor I keep seeing everywhere: Queso Helado. Cheese ice cream! I am sad to share it had no cheese at all.

There was some sort of event happening in the town square, so we sat with our cones and watched a band perform. It was mostly empty other than about 6 old ladies dancing.

Once again, I admired the Peruvian women’s fashion. I’m too uncomfortable to ask to take photos of anyone, but the colors, the long braids, and the hats can’t be beat.

We came back to the hotel to rest our legs, but soon went back to the same restaurant from last night. Millie is finally eating well again and had a ton of corn and chicken. We all shared Chicha and left very full and very tired. According to my phone, we walked almost 8 miles today!