Bombs away!
Last night, I met Sarah and mark at our hostel and we headed out to town. After wandering around Cuszo, we met our tour operator me guide for our upcoming trek. Ruben, the company owner let us know immediately that he was drunk free celebrating his brothers birthday all day. This meant that before we knew it, he was handing us free schwag and paying for a horse to carry all of our equipment the next day, all while telling us the three stories over and over. Ha. 1) his wife is mad at him for drinking 2) he donates 10%of all his proceeds back to the village where he was born, and 3). 3 was confusing. It involved his life story, 3 kids, 2 step kids and some sort of infidelity and some other details we couldn't understand. Did I mention he was drink?
A very amusing hour for sure. We headed to dinner and were given a dessert of homemade pisco sours. To bed.
In the morning we woke up at 5:30 am and piled in a minivan (driven by our favorite drunk... Who was now sober) and headed to the Sacred Valley. Honestly, I didn't see much on the drive because the only way I have learned to combat carsickness is to sleep. Alas, I got a two hour nap. After stopping at a local market, we made it to our trailhead which is also hot springs. Boom, my type of hike!
The hot springs were great and had a temperature for all. They were bright orange and I was able to suppress my distaste for public hot tubs and stay in for more than 5 minutes. The bathing attire was also amazing. Everything from underwear to sports shirts to dresses and T-shirts. Again, awesome.
On to our hike. We made our way up the Lares Valley following the creek and ran onto tons of kids herding sheep, people heading somewhere... And then....
A WEDDING. Super traditional, community oriented and an amazing celebration we were able to witness. Pictures to come...