First Day of Machu Picchu Trek

 Javier came around 6 am to pick us up in the van. His wife, Karin, and two daughters, Sami and Eliza, came with us. 

These are the Skylodge glass pods you can sleep in to have a room with a view over the Sacred Valley. Pretty cool. We did not stay there. :)

We stopped in Ollantaytambo to do a really quick walk and see just a couple things.

Including this crazy house where the kids got to feed the guinea pigs (they live in the house, but later they'll be dinner).

It was so dark. And macabre... in there.

Couple things to point out: 1. Dead baby alpaca or llama corpse hanging on the wall

2. Three skulls there in the middle shelf thingee-- they are skulls of their ancestors, and they bring blessings on the home. I told everyone on Whatsapp that I hereby call for the skulls of mom and dad when they die so that they can bless my home. ha!

3. The dead vulture/bird thing. 

Yeah, it had a strange overall feeling. 

This picture was for Kami.

Hanging saddles up on the wall is a cool decor though. We didn't buy any souvenirs from these people, so we left fairly quickly.

The view to the Ollantaytambo ruins, which we never did go back and tour because we decided not to buy tourist tickets for all of us. And that was just fine.

It was about five hours of driving that day, and we got to a totally different landscape/climate than Cusco. Here's a tree with mangos. Did you know they hang down like that? I didn't!

Then we drove fast on this cliff-side Road of Death for a while. That was extremely exciting. hahaa. The picture does not do it justice!

Brett bought this sticker at one shop we stopped at, and all the boys just love it! hahah

We got to Santa Teresa and got situated at our hotel, and then went to lunch. If I remember it was a little balcony place that was nice and we had yummy Peruvian food. Then we went to the Cocalmayo Hot Springs which was probably the  nicest place we'd gone to in Peru so far (as far as seeming more clean and organized and just nice and touristy).

These waterfalls come from the mountain (I think you can see it better in a later picture) and were very cold. I didn't feel the need to go under them, but the kids all did at some point.

This pool was nice and warm though. So nice.

Brett braving the cold waterfall, and looking so hot.

Talmage flexing to show off his six-pack.

Orrin's always brave in cold water situations.

We went over and tried another pool. It was also nice.

Later, after we'd tried to change as quickly as possible, but still gotten a thousand little bug bites by these mosquito-type terrors, we went out for pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken and fries). Very delicious. A cat wandered in under Hazel. hahaa 

I didn't take a picture of that hotel, but I did see a real cockroach for the first time in my life there. Good times.