South America- Day 5- Ollantaytambo and Cusco- "Farm to table"

Today was a much, much easier day to help us recover before our upcoming colca canyon hikes. We slept in at our lovely hotel then had french toast and pancakes for breakfast. Sigh- just what we needed. Our leisurely morning continued with repacking the bags and logging some time online. Really we were just biding our time til noon when we had scheduled a farm tour and lunch.

We were picked up at noon by Joaquin, who runs the hotel/restaurant/farm etc with his brother (his parents founded the place). He walked us through the hotel explaining that his mom was an artist and his dad was a writer who backpacked around South America and decided to plant roots here instead of moving back to the west coast. He did some of his schooling in Seattle and went to Tulane, truly brought up in both cultures, so he was able to give us a great tour and answer all of the questions we had. He took us out to their organic farm, which they started a few years ago, and showed us all the plantings, explaining how things run, and picking examples for us to smell/taste. If we can find andean mint to plant in our backyard, I will be so happy-- most amazing mint I've ever smelled and we later had it in tea form and it was delicious. They grow such a variety there and it's the main source for the restaurant; they have everything from artichokes and tomatoes to two kinds of fennel and multiple kinds of lettuce to carrots to herbs to peppers-- the list could go on and on. Their family is also very active in the town and recently started a bilingual school that they're hoping to continue to grow so it includes the dull primary school age range.

Once we had walked around a bit, he took us up to another section where two guys were preparing lunch. The pachamanca lunch is the traditional preparation and is all sorts of meat and veggies placed in a hole in the ground and covered with hot rocks and then buried to trap the heat and steam and smoke in. May not sound appealing to everyone, but it was a really fun and interesting experience and we're so glad we decided to spend an extra few hours in Ollantaytambo to do it.

We got to eat lunch in this area, with views of the ruins, mountains, and glaciers to keep us company. In addition to the food prepared in this way, they provided three kinds of sauces, two salads, chincha de maiz morado (this amazing drink made from dark corn that we are now addicted to), and macuay (herbal digestive that was surprisingly tasty). We finished off the ridiculously filling meal with andean mint tea and were sad to leave this amazing place.

On we went back to Cusco where we checked into our hotel. The altitude started catching up with me (Cusco is higher than anywhere else we've been so far) so I was feeling a little off and not up for much. We decided to go to the Qorinacha Priory which is a beautiful structure and site that has incan relics and art inside.  We then went over to Santo Domingo church and walked around the Plaza.de Armas.

Because we had gotten in late this afternoon and the altitude was rearing its head, we took it easy the rest of the evening: grabbed sandwiches and dessert from an adorable place down the street, read our books, and hoped sleep would help the headaches.