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Getting in from our big night out at 2am, meant getting up early today to check out the Sacred Valley. I was stoked to find out we had Edwin as our guide again, so I knew it'd be a good day.
The bus ride started with a climb up Sacsayhuaman (which is pronounced like sexy woman) to get to a wildlife sanctuary for animals who had been injured by humans, whether as pets or being sold on the black market. Aside from the 1000th llama we saw, there were a bunch of macaws which had seen better days - they had lost a bunch of feathers and were so dirty and skinny it was terrible. There was a puma who slept the whole time we were there, but the most impressive animals there were definitely the condors. Coming from Colca canyon and seeing them soaring around didn't really do these birds justice, they were so huge. Their body would be the size of a Labrador, with gigantic wings with a span of 3 metres. We stood in the middle of this huge cage, and the condors seemed to know what to do. They climbed to the top of a hill, spread their wings and flew over the top of us, inches away from clocking us over the head. I was pretty nervous of them, after meeting this guy from Ireland on the train back from Machu Picchu, who had actually almost been knocked out by the condor as it flew straight into him!
We then piled back into the bus and stopped at the top of the Sacred Valley to take photos. The next town we stopped at was Pisac, to shop for beautiful silver jewellery at the markets. I absolutely hate bartering, because I feel like I'm ripping these people (who don't have two cents to rub together) off, so i paid whatever price they said. I probably got ripped off but It was still extremely cheap - about $30nzd for mother of pearl and silver earrings. I went a bit mad buying all sorts of unique pieces so the budget has been blown a bit!
Next stop was back to Ollantaytambo - the start of the Inca trail, to visit the temple of the sun ruins. Honestly, coming from Machu Picchu, these ruins weren't anything to write home about, except for the mountain overlooking these ruins which has two distinctive natural Inca faces in the rocks. Very cool. At this stage, it was getting close to dark, so we began the long trip back to Cusco, buzzing from yet another amazing day in Peru! We said our sad goodbyes to Edwin and then headed for bed
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