Horse Ride in the hills above Cusco

So, since we helped Javier clean and do jobs at his stables the other day (I was super blunt with Javier and said that we'd spent all our Peru money and didn't have more to do any more excursions, but he said since we helped work on Saturday and if I would help him by writing good reviews for him, he would give us a screaming deal for a horse trip. (Horse trips are his favorite things to do.)) we met up for a horse ride! Very unfortunately, he only had enough horses that four of us could come. So somehow we worked it out that Hazel, Ethne, Talmage, and I got to go. We were excited and a bit nervous, since Ethne and Talmage don't have much horse experience.  Also, Javier did not inspire much confidence in me! He told me I could ride the white horse as it was the most energetic, and I was like, hmmm... and then when it was time to get up, he said, "Come here and I'll hold him, but wait, first I'm going to cover his eyes so he can't see for a minute. And as soon as you get on he's going to start going, and he'll start fast." And I was like, "Javier! You're making me nervous!" and he's like, "It's FIIINE! He's just energetic!" 

So, off we went, quickly! The horses were eager to go--there was no trying to coax them into walking faster. The kids did well.  After a little while, we stopped here for a little rest.

Then we kept going, stopped somewhere for lunch, and then rode some more. Javier told us we'd get to a part where we'd be going up some steep rocky places where it was a level 3 (or something... there was a level 3 and then a level 4). We were like, "But what's that out of? Is it out of 10? 5? 4?" haha  But we made it. We finally got to the top of a mountain where there were some Incan ruins (of course) and sweeping views over all of Cusco. We could also see to some of the Ausangate mountains we'd trekked through.  It was pretty amazing. We had a long rest, and Javier asked us where we thought he should put a little picnic table area for when he takes more tourists on this ride. He also filmed me talking about how great this excursion was for his website or something.

Ethne said the picnic area should be up there. :)

We were a little tired, but feeling good!

Luckily it was a loop, so we didn't have to go back down the steep rocky part. Also, I got feeling more confident, so I took my phone out more to get pictures while we were riding.

Javier pointed out this sign with a little smile. He said something about it having been okayed to ride horses here now... :)

The rest of these pictures are out of order because they are the ones Javier sent me. But that's nice because now there are some pictures with me in them. :) 

Here's one of the steep, rocky parts, but I think there were more later that were crazier because they were next to more of a drop-off.

At one point when we kind of came around a corner, and the horses knew they were close to home, we basically couldn't keep them from running. So we ran pretty much the last mile or more home. Which was exhilerating.

And then Javier had a taxi driver take our sore little bodies home again. Recently Brett asked some of the kids what their favorite parts of Peru were, and Ethne said the horse ride. So I'm glad she overcame her nervousness and came with us!