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: