The mountain village

Elly worked in different small villages around the area helping educate about public health. One of the communities she worked in was called Huilloc and she made a friend with one of the women there. She was a weaver so we went up to the village to see what kinds of things she had made recently that we could buy. Unfortunately she wasn't there that day, she had to go work up in the mountain somewhere with other chosen members of the town, so we went to the weaving co-op instead and saw some beautiful weavings there. On our way back to town, we walked back down the road and then hiked up to an Incan ruin called Punamarca. It was about a 4-hour trek and a little rainy, but the views were incredible.

 

 

 

Rave running

I went on some runs with Elly in Peru and couldn't help but bring my camera along to take pictures of all the beautiful scenery. It was crazy hard running at 7,500 ft altitude and going up a mountain at the same time, but I felt pretty tough afterwards. Our first run was along the river and we had to cross back over in a little suspended pull cart/basket. Then our next run we went up a mountain to get to some Incan stairs (889 of them to be exact) and walked up them as fast as we could before coming down and running back. My hips were pretty sore after that one, but it was pretty sweet. It's always an adventure running with Elly.

Ollantaytambo

My friend Elly and I took a taxi van to the town she's been living in for the past 6 months called Ollantaytambo. She took me up the mountain to check out some Incan ruins and get a view of the town from above and then gave me a short tour. It is a beautiful town in the valley near Machu Picchu with Incan ruins all around, but it's full of tourists going to and from Machu Picchu so it would be tough to live there, but it was nice to visit.

These large stones are original Incan stonework. It's amazing how they got the rocks to be square-shaped and to fit together and that they're still standing strong! They build their doorways slightly tilted back and slightly tilted in at the top so that when there were earthquakes they wouldn't crumble...geniuses.

 

Elly's humble home

There was a hostel there called Chaska Wasi which means house of stars in Quechua, the native language of the people in Peru. Pretty cool :)