Perolniyoc Falls and Naupa Iglesia

 So, since Jethro was feeling better this day, we decided to go on our hike to a waterfall in the Sacred Valley. Our driver (I think his name was Carlos, was someone who Javier recommended) picked us up at 6:00 and drove for an hour and a half to the beginning of the trail. Then we told him when to meet us back there, and off we went.

It was a beautiful day.

Small Falls. Very pretty.

And then we reached the real fall, and it was amazing!!!  I think the video captures it pretty well, actually-- you can hear Navy saying, "That's beautiful!!" It really was beautiful! So we stayed and enjoyed for a while.

I love Hazel's selfie with it. :)

Me and my honey.

So we finally got going again, and we went up the trail to where there was a different view of the fall. According to one website, "The trek up to the ruins will leave you breathless, as they sit just shy of 12,000 ft with an ascent of over 3,350 ft."  but everyone did great.

The water from the Falls comes down to irrigate this valley, so it's very green and pretty.

So these ruins right on top of the Fall is called Raqaypata Archaeological Park.

Ethne and I got there last, so everyone else had made themselves comfortable.

Hazel started bouldering on this big ...boulder. That was a fun pastime for most everyone for a while.

After exploring, I came back to watch some more bouldering. The rock had different levels of difficulty depending on which side you were on.

Wyatt got up the hard side with a little help from Hazel.

I got up!! Far more challenging than you'd think-- and very exciting.

Woohoo me!

Then Brett finally got back from exploring, and so we all had to show him our skillz on the boulder.

In the meantime, Ethne took selfies and Talmage felt sick.

So here is the picture right before disaster. Hazel and I are up top, and Wyatt is coming up, showing Dad how he can do it. Brett watched him struggling and said, "Should I stand under you?" and Wyatt was all offended, and said, "I've already done it once!!" but Brett went and stood under him anyway, just to feel a little better about it, and it's a good thing he did! Because just a moment or so after, Wyatt fell, and Brett wasn't able to catch him completely, but he did half catch him/break his fall, and even with that, Wyatt's breath got knocked out of him hard, and for a couple minutes, we all held our breath, waiting for him to get HIS breath! It was scary for that small amount of time! I was just so so so sooooo grateful that his head hadn't hit the rock that it was mere INCHES from. (In fact, from above, I thought his head HAD hit the rock. It could have been so awful and our day could have been totally different.) Grateful for miracles (and also smart Brett who followed whisperings).

So we gathered together and started back down. By the way, NO ONE else was around. We hadn't seen anyone at the waterfall, or on the trail, or at these ruins. It was so awesome.

Had to take all the same pictures of the waterfall on the way down. hahaa

Playing in the water some more.

Many more pictures because it's still so incredibly cool! :)

Then we drove a little way down the road to where there was another Incan (or maybe pre-Incan) ruin of a chapel, up a short but very steep mountainside. It is called Naupa Iglesia (or church) and it had a little altar.

It was a neat cave of ruins.