See photobucket website for the full collection of photos.
We touched down and had dinner with 2 of his cousins who live nearby. We spent the night with his cousin Roxanne and her daughter in Oropeza the bread capitol of Peru. It also happened to be their festival weekend. You've never smelled bread so yummy or loaves so big. Too bad it's not on my diet.
The next day we all went to visit Richard's cousin in Urubamba. He Dad was Richard's cousin and he died in a car accident before she was born. She is now 15. He always makes a point to visit her. It was quite the travel story however. It took us 3 hours to get home and it was only 1 hour away. That is travel in Peru with public transportation at times. Oh well. At least we made it. Sometimes the line you are waiting in does matter! It was a day well spent for many reasons.
Then we moved on to visit Richard's grandfather Mariano and his aunts who live in Pitumarca. It is a quaint town nestled deep in the Sacred Valley outside Cuzco. It was wonderful. I was so happy to meet him and spend time in this tiny part of Peru. Much is as it has been for many many years here. Traditional clothes, cooking techniques, farming. Life is here very much all about hard manual labor. Plows pulled by oxen, hand-hoed and harvested. It is not an easy life, but a beautiful and simple one. We both have such great respectfor their way of life. His aunts couldn't have been sweeter. They were all so happy we visited. It had been 3 years since Richard last had time to visit.
His grandfather had wonderful stories and legends to tell about Incan treasure and gold. It was great fun to listen to all he has seen in his 80+ years. We also had a wonderfully rainstorm one night that was much needed for the area.
I would have loved to spend more time there. It was so calm and quiet and fresh. It reminded me of many places in Idaho but with a culture that had infused the area and gave it a great sense of history. It was a joy to meet his grandfather and I hope we can return again for longer. It is a great vacation spot.
So we returned to Cuzco to head back to Lima. However, we almost didn't make it. It was definitely a story for the travel logs and now Richard knows the craziness of traveling firsthand. We spent the night at Hotel Sucia I right of the plaza. We didn't have to be at the airport until 2pm. We wanted to take a hike in the morning above Cuzco and get a few gifts. As we were hiking up toward the ruins we ended up agreeing to a horseback ride. It sounded too good to pass up. We had a wonderful time and got to see much more of the area, however it really pushed us for time.
I thought he was watching the time, I didn't have a watch. We rushed back to the hotel to checkout and he went off to buy a couple of things we needed to take back. We still wanted to take photos of the plaza and eat. What we didn't remember or calculate was the road construction. We left late and then it took us twice as long to get to the airport.
Basically....we arrived at the airport less than 30 minutes before the departure time. Not good. It was very busy and of course they would not check us in or take our bags. They said to take our chances getting through security and see if we could get on at the gate. We'll there was a big group ahead of us. So it took too much time and we made it to the gate and they had already closed the cargo door......no luck.
So there we were with 2 backpacks and a large bag full of gifts and a small duffle bag and no flight. They had told us earlier that they couldn't change us to a later flight because of our type of ticket (cheap) and so I really didn't know what would become of us. However, remaining kind and calm helps. So, I just said whatever you can do we'd be very thankful.
Well, no more than 3 minutes later he comes over to us and tells us that one gate down another flight is leaving for Lima and they'll take us. Hallelujah! So we went right over took whatever open seat we could find and off we were just like that.....phewww....
Back to Lima with enough time to go back to the house to shower and exchange our winter type clothes for summer clothes and back to the airport 3 hours later for our flight to Iquitos where the Amazon jungle begins.
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