SCARED VALLEY OF THE INCA'S

Urbamba and Villa Runa

The trip out of the Jungle and into the Scared Valley of the Incas involved a voyage up the Amazon, a mad taxi ride to the airport, a walk across the hot steamy tarmac and a very dramatic flight to Cusco.   I told the story of this flight previously in the blog titled Midair Angels.  Once we landed in Cusco we felt the 11,000 ft elevation within minutes.  Not enough to get sick, we were just aware that there wasn't quite enough Oxygen around as we would have liked.

 

The drive from the airport in Cusco to the village of Urbamba and the Villa Runa was a very scenic hour and a half.

Following are a group of pictures of Villa Runa, a 3 bedroom adobe lodge style home we  rented from the  web.  There were  5 or 6 homes in a walled complex managed as rentals for tourists.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Villa came with two maids who cleaned each day after they  cooked us breakfast.  My favorite breakfast were the small crunchy quinoa pancakes served with an unidentified fruit jam.  We found most of the fruits were unidentified or unpronounceable.

 

 

We had arranged for the services of a driver for the week (at extra cost).The first day we just wanted to shop at the market  and get to know the village. So we arranged for Rosalia  to pick us up for the journey into town to the markets.   While the Villa staff, Maritza and Inailia cleaned up the breakfast dishes, we  took off to the village of Urbamba to lay in supplies for when we had to fend for ourselves. 

We had heard of the vast variety of potatoes they grow in Peru, so what a better place  than the market to find a few of them. The above photo is just a sampling of the many, many varieties of potatoes they grow.  We never saw a Russet or a Red Potato, a Sweet Potato or a Yukon Gold.

 

 

But we did find the cutest little vendor!!! 

 

 

On through the market, fruit was on our list.

 

 

As well as cheese.

 

 

With fruit and cheese purchased we headed past the church on the main square in search of a bakery. 

 

 

 

Now deciding on bread and goodies certainly requires a lot on conferring.

 

 

Mission accomplished!!!!!!!