Peru Day 11-Chocolate Making and Guinea Pig Eating

As the trip winds to a close our days are less packed and we glad for that. This morning we met up with our group at the very reasonable hour of 10 and walked to the main square to take a chocolate making class.

I can't personally think of one wrong thing with that concept!

We learned all of the steps

And then picked ingredients and made our own individual chocolates.

Then we shopped in their store with a discount.

So yeah, an easy win for us!!!

Tonight was the big night. Monkey really wanted to try Guinea pig and Dave had arranged for us to have a special celebration platter at a local restaurant. We found out later that is number 10 on Trip Advisor!

 He brought the little pig out wearing this creepy hat, but that's all part of the presentation. We snapped some photos and then the owner carved him up for us.

 M was rather offended by the little teeth and claws.

 That said, one bite of that yummy meat and he was over it.

This was our final dinner in Cusco. This time tomorrow night we will be en route home. It's been an amazing trip.

Peru Day 10-Machu Picchu back to Cusco

Today we checked out from our hostel at 9am (standard Peruvian checkout time) and walked half an hour towards Machu Picchu to the Mariposa House (butterfly house)

We were amazed at the beauty and elegance of the many 'owl' butterflies whose colouring mimic owls on their back,  but have beautiful blue colouring on the inside. Dave was impressed at the first-hand examples of the species that he has taught about in biology.

Our guide showed us the eggs and caccoons that are nestled beneath the large leaves of the plants so we could understand the full cycle of life.

Equally awesome was the hidden path at the edge of the sanctuary that lead to the Urubamba river that we rafted on a few days ago. At the top right of the photo you can see Machu Picchu. We sat on these rocks for quite some time just enjoying the peace and quiet. It's pretty humbling to sit in the valley between such enormous mountain ranges.

There was even a rusted out old bus on the property!!

Some of our most astute readers have noticed a bit of a bump under Saje's shirt in some photos. We enjoy a good "is she or isn't she?" celebrity bump watch like the rest of you.

To help with the "did she just have a big cheeseburger for lunch" questions, we have the following to say. We do not have an announcement to make. These are our passports.

We then checked out the Machu Picchu museum to learn more about the installation, architecture and history of he Inca. This guy was keeping guard of the men's bathroom.  Thankfully C didn't notice until I showed him the photo outside the museum!

Then, arguably the best part of C's day, the train ride back to Cusco. Apparently the upscale train was the one that fit in to the tour schedule so we travelled in style! We even got pizza!

It was great to arrive back at Cusco and even better to get our same rooms back at the hotel. It wasn't enough though. C has had enough. The constant transitions through the last few days were too much for our sweet little man. The stimming and such picked up through the day and culminated in a lot of tears in the evening and sleeping with me overnight. He's done with change and wants to go home.

Peru Day 9-Machu Picchu!!

Today is the day!! We got up at the butt crack of dawn and went down for breakfast. The hotel opted not to make eggs for anyone as they felt they were too busy. I politely chucked a wobbly and eggs appeared.

We hit the train station and walked around looking at the awesomeness that is a train station. We were so engrossed in the beauty (and assisting one of the staff with a very heavy bag) that C and I didn't even notice the train coming down the tracks he was on! He jumped out of the way and the slowly moving train rolled safely past.

Once on the train we sat in awe of the scenery as it went by both through the windows beside us, but also through the windows in the ceiling.

It was absolutely breathtaking. The musical stylings were delightful.  At one point we were on the train listening to the instrumental version of My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion. What more could you ask for?

Once off the train it's a frightening bus ride up the mountain. I can see why the Spanish didn't find Machu Picchu! It's basically 800 sharp s-bends up the side of a mountain on a dirt road. Mercy.

For people who choose to hike rather than take the train it is a 4 day, 3 night trek. Our official reason for not doing it is that C is too young. Our actual reason for not doing it is that we do not want to.

The place is amazing and here are our photos but I'm sure Google will serve you much better than our camera phones

The boys continually marvelled at the obvious intelligence and ingenuity of the Incan people. They can't understand why the Spanish wiped them out and tried to convert them. We tried our best to explain the mindset behind colonialism to them. It's tough for them to wrap their heads around it all.

The aqueducts that the Inca installed in the 1400s still work today. It's incredible. If he lived in 1450 C would absolutely have helped to install those!!

On our way out we got our official Machu Picchu stamps in our passports next to our Peru stamps! This is all of the boy's first of the seven wonders and my second.

In the evening we headed to the local hot baths. We especially enjoyed the translation on this sign:

Peru Day 8-White Water Rafting in the Sacred Valley

We pulled out of the home stay this morning and decended overy 1500m down in to the valley to go white water rafting.

 During the rainy season this river is a level 5 out of 5. Today it i's a level 3. Yeah, I'm down with that!

We hit the water with very little previous experience and a bit lot of fear in our hearts.

 We did 45 minutes of easy rafting to get used to not drowning.

 The second 45 minutes consisted of trying in earnest not to drown. We did one level 3 rapid and some level 2s. It was a tremendous amount of fun!

After rafting we checked in to our newest hotel and grabbed some lunch. I was so thrilled to be able to easily order ketogenic food again.

It was quite difficult for me to eat up in the mountains as their traditional foods include a lot of potatoes, quinoa, rice and carrots. I was glad to have come prepared with a lot of my own food.

As we left lunch we saw 2 bulls being guided through the street...as you do of course.

I will be honest with you, dear readers, for a quick moment. We got and stayed dirty in the mountains. The showers were the only place that hot water could be found, but they were located in a tiny hut outside. So even thoughthe water itself was warm, the air surrounding said water and said naked flesh was somewhere between -5 and about 9. Nope. Hard nope.

So Dave was the only one ofthe 7 of us who showered and we all just collectively accepted that this is how it was going to go. It will come as no surprise that I hit the shower almost instantly after lunch.  The white face cloth that I used came up grey!!! There was a lot of dust on that mountain.

We spent the afternoon wandering around the local market. It was mostly the same stuff we've been seeing everywhere else. We stumbled in to a chocolate museum and learned about chocolate while sampling the end product.

Dave is getting really good at Spanish. For those moments when the 20 words/phrases he knows don't serve our purposes we use Google translate. Here the clerk at the museum is typing in her answer to Dave's question. Technology is grand!

We are packing tonight for our morning journey to Macchu Picchu. That's right! Tomorrow is the big day!!!

Day 7- Second day in Mismanay

Today we were in for a bit of surprise.  Our listed activities included 'tree planting and a short walk to a viewpoint'. We should have known better when our tools included not only baby trees and shovels,  by also pick axes. Pick axes with Peruvian length handles...not built for the WB family's stature.

We headed down to a small field with our tools in hand,  only to find that we weren't planting the trees in the soft,  smooth field,  but rather the hardened,  rocky border to the roadway. They showed us how to dig into the unforgiving 'soil' to get started. The work was significantly harder than anticipated.  In this instance it would seem that the size of the tools one was working with did, in fact, matter.

The boys eagerly added fertilizer and water that had been carried in large buckets by the women, including the 72 year-old eldest host lady.

All-in-all we planted out two dozen or so trees in the hour and a half that we toiled in the warm,  bright sun. It seems that this was not enough for our hosts.

The clincher though was when they asked after lunch if any of us wanted to come back to plant the rest. After holding back a chuckle,  we let them know that we were on holiday and we're much more interested in a brief siesta followed by the walk to the lookout.

The change in elevation made even a few hundred meters a challenge. Deep breaths and open chests made the climb easier. We were greeted with a stunning view of the surrounding mountains and the gorgeous valley down below.

On our return we came across a French tour group who complimented Saje on the quality of her French (no Canadian accent)!

Look! We just climbed that!!

After some dancing and stories around the campfire,  where the entire W clan joined in and towered over their dancing partners,  we retired for the night under a blanket of stars (including the Southern Cross!).

 Apparently the local packs of dogs and the neighbourhood donkey didn't get the memo that it was sleep time as they howled and brayed throughout the night