Peru - Day 2 - Pisaq.

Finally we arrived at Pisaq. The views were quite incredible. The hike itself was tiring itself, as the altitude is still quite high; but the effort was worth it.

Can you see the holes? The whole mountainside was full of them. They are graves. The Incas used to bury their dead in holes in the side of the mountain. The bodies would be in the fetal position, and they were entombed with the locally grown crops, flowers, silver, and fabrics and weavings. They are now empty, however, due to looters many many years ago. The Incas believed in Pachamama, or Mother Earth. I have tendencies to believe in this same way, so the idea of returning to the earth, in a mountainside, no less, is very romantic to me.

And here we are all with are hearts racing but smiles on our faces!

I ran up ahead so I could get a shot to show a bit of how our trail really was on the side of the mountain. It's too bad that cameras don't really capture true depths, or you'd be able to see how far down it really was to the bottom. I'm not sure how anyone could survive a fall from up there.

In the middle of this community area there is a large roundish rock with a small protrusion. It has a wall around it, signifying that it was special. Our guide Jose said that they probably believed it was a center point that the sun would revolve around, and that they used it as a sundial for the seasons.

I liked this cave. We had to duck and walk through in a single file.

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After this long day we were really ready to get back to our comfy beds at the hotel, Casa Andina Private Collection. This hotel was wonderful. The staff were always very helpful - and generous! All four of us were upgraded to suites at no charge. This really was one of the best beds I've ever slept in.

I really loved the ceilings, too.

This was our balcony and view. Fantastic.

After we got back to our rooms and refreshed ourselves, we had a nice dinner at Cicciolina. Rafi and I both had the gnocchi, and it was splendid. I also enjoyed a maracuya sour (like a pisco sour but made with passion fruit juice).

I believe it was this night that I had my only issue with altitude sickness. I had neglected to take my evening Sorojchi pill, and while I wasn't nauseous and had no headache, my heart was pounding so fast and so hard that it hurt. Once oxygen was brought to our room I felt better within a few minutes and quickly fell asleep.