Horseback Riding In The Sacred Valley

One of the things I was most excited about doing in Peru was going horseback riding through the Sacred Valley. Because this was a must-do for me, I made sure to arrange everything in advance. I assumed we would be part of  a larger group, but Dan and I actually had a private tour with Valencia Travel.

We did the half-day tour from Cusco that takes you to four Incan ruins: Qenko, Puca Pucara, Tambomachay, and Sacsayhuaman. The price of admission to the sites was not included in the tour. We purchased the tourist ticket for Cusco which allowed us entry into 16 sites, including Maras which we saw the day before. It's not cheap, but it is worth it. You can buy the ticket at any entry site.

The day started off on such a funny foot. The tour director asked me, in English, how comfortable with horses I am and how well I speak Spanish. I told him that I had been around horses before but only as a tourist or summer camper, and that my Spanish is OK, but not fluent. He immediately turns to our horse wrangler and says, in Spanish, "she's fluent and very comfortable around horses." Umm...not quite what I said! It led to hilarious interactions between us and our non-English-speaking wrangler who took us galloping through the fields! Thankfully it all worked out well and we had an amazing time.

The way the tour works is you ride from site to site, and at each site are met by your English-speaking guide who will show you around the ruins. Our guide happened to be 

Quechuan, or an indigenous person. Just like when we went to Egypt and had a Coptic Christian as a tour guide or in Jordan when we toured with a Bedouin, I always find it interesting to hear a minority view of the culture and society. We were especially lucky in this case because he could tell us more of the meaning behind the ruins and how the Incan culture and traditions continue to this day.

Very interestingly, I kept trying to speak to him in Spanish, but he kept switching back to English. I finally asked him which language he prefers. He told me he preferred English because "Spanish is the language of my oppressors." Wow! That was a new one. I had no idea that in Peru, the Quechuan people along with other indigenous tribes were persecuted and not allowed to practice their customs and languages. It is only recently, he said, that the Peruvian government realized that a lot of tourists are interested in native cultures and are starting to use that as a selling point. It was an eye-opening conversation for sure.

We also visited an alpaca and llama farm. I mean, come on. Look at these cuties!

The ruins were great and the riding was exceptional. I was worried that the ruins would be a bit of  a let-down after Machu Picchu, but they are so different and gave me an even deeper appreciation of how sophisticated this society was.

See our other stops in Peru:
Itinerary
Lima in Two Days
Getting to the Sacred Valley
Machu Picchu
Maras and Moray
Cusco and Pisac

Maras and Moray in the Sacred Valley

When we were planning our trip to Peru, we did a lot of research about where to go and how long to stay in each place. There is so much to do in Peru, that unless you narrow it down, you can quickly get overwhelmed and miss a lot of great stuff. We decided to spend the majority of our time in Sacred Valley, and it was a fantastic decision. We had plenty of time to see the sites without feeling rushed. It was the perfect pace that allowed it to really feel like a vacation, with plenty of time for tea and pastries--just the way we like to travel.

We spent a day exploring two of the most famous Incan sites in the Sacred Valley--Maras and Moray. The easiest way for us to explore was by hiring a local guide in Ollantaytambo to take us around the sites and then drop us off in Cusco where we were staying that night. Our guide was very friendly and spoke English well.

Our first stop was Moray, which was where the Incan people would conduct agricultural experiments. I had seen pictures of this site before, but the pictures don't do it justice. It's really hard to tell the scale of this place without actually standing there, but the tiers are each several feet high, and in total it is almost 100 feet deep! There's also a temperature variance of as much as 27 degrees F from the surface-level to the deepest tier. What an amazing feat of science to build these perfect tiers and understand the concepts of experimentation. Because of the Incans, Peru today is known for their more than 2,000 varieties of potatoes among many other things!

The second stop was Maras, which is a salt flat that pre-dates the Incans, and is still used by locals. Here, our guide really shined. He told us the history of these salt flats, explained how they worked, and how each one is allocated to a Maras family. 

Each is pond owned by a family in Maras who harvests the salt and sells for income. The size of the pond depends on how big the family is.

After a fantastic day out, we headed to Cusco for our first of three nights in Cusco. It was a Friday night, and we heard that there was a vibrant Chabad House in Cusco. Chabads are found around the world and serve as a Jewish center for travelers. Dan and I have been to a few Chabads, including in England, Thailand, and throughout the United States, and we thought it would be nice to have a hot kosher meal. It was lovely!

It's one of the largest and most active Chabad Houses in the world, which makes sense given the number of Israelis who come to visit Machu Picchu each year. Unfortunately we couldn't take any pictures because it was the sabbath, but there were easily two hundred people there for a Friday night dinner. It was a great test of my Hebrew since the whole dinner was conducted in Hebrew. Thankfully we sat next to a few nice people who all had fascinating travel stories (and spoke English!). It was our first glimpse into the wonderful city of Cusco!

See our other stops in Peru:
Itinerary
Lima in Two Days
Getting to the Sacred Valley
Machu Picchu
Horseback Riding in the Sacred Valley
Cusco and Pisac

Philadelphia Food Recommendations

Earlier this summer I traveled to Philadelphia for a quick weekend away with my friend Dina. She lives in New Jersey and I'm in DC, so Philly is the perfect half-way spot. We've been there before together so we already had a few ideas of what we wanted to do--and let's be honest, eat.

I wanted to jot down my favorite food places in Philly. I've been to each of these at least once, and some I visit every time I'm in Philly. It's hard to squeeze in as much deliciousness in a weekend as I want, but a girl can try! Here are my top suggestions.

Dinner

• Morimoto, 723 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19106
• Some of the best, freshest sushi you’ll find. Chef Morimoto was an Iron Chef in both the American and original Japanese versions. They restaurant is beautiful and chic, and they have a lot of non-sushi items too if you’re not into raw fish. Last time I was here I had the wasabi black cod, and Dina had the 28-day aged steak. Both plates were licked clean.
• Barbuzzo, 110 S 13th St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
• Tiny Mediterranean small-plates restaurant. The portions were pretty big so take what they say is a serving size with a grain of salt. The peach and fig salad was delicious, as were the branzino, and the cavolfiore pizza. The restaurant is tiny though, so make a reservation.

Brunch

• El Ray, 2013 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
• Yummy Mexican food. I especially like their brunch options like huevos rancheros and breakfast burrito, but their lunch looked great too.
• Reading Terminal Market, 51 N 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107
• A smorgasbord of deliciousness. It's a bustling market that has tons of local vendors selling everything from fresh cheese and meats, to scratch-made sauces, to sweets. There are several food stalls and a busy seating area where you have to fight for seats during peak times. It's worth it though. I had a fancy grilled cheese at Meltkraft. The Brielle is brie, cranberry chutney, caramelized onions , and pine nuts on brioche. Yum!

• Continental Mid-Town, 51 N 12th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103
• The food was good—nothing crazy, but unexpectedly good. But what’s super fun about the restaurant is that you can sit in a swing and eat! The design of the place is really amazing.
  

Dessert

• Capogiro Gelato, 117 S 20th St, Philadelphia, PA 19103
• Super creamy, delicious gelato. I really enjoy the chocolate banana, the amaretto, and any weirdo flavors they have that day (tomato and basil was an awesome one; cilantro is refreshing).

Note: many of my recommendations are from the Starr restaurant group. I really love everyone I’ve been to (including the Dandelion, that isn’t on this list but is a solid choice too). He has fun concepts that really resonate with me.

Dear Asher: 2 Years

Dear Asher,

Happy second birthday!! This is my favorite time--I wish we could bottle it up and keep it forever. You are such a fun little guy. You love nothing more than giving big hugs and kisses and being held. You're also funny and love to make people laugh. You're curious and enjoy making big messes and "testing gravity" by throwing food everywhere.

Your language has really exploded. This month you started using three-word sentences like, "go outside now." Outside is still your favorite place to be, and you love blowing bubbles (dumping the bubbles on the ground), playing with chalk, running in the grass, or swimming in the pool.

You're very polite, which I love. You say please and thank you for almost everything. And, although you make big messes, you also like to clean up. Your two most used words are "trash" and "napkin." You love throwing every little speck of trash away. Whether it actually is trash or not is up for debate, but we love the good intention.

Playing pretend is a new fun activity. You love pretending to be a puppy. You'll pant and bark and play fetch. It's hilarious. You also love pretending that your food is some sort of vehicle. Trucks, trains, cars, boats...it doesn't matter. You have sounds to go with all of them.

This month we went to visit your babushka and dedushka in Florida, and you had a few firsts. First time holding a baby alligator, and first time flying business class! Hard to say which experience was more fun.

You are at the age where everything you do is adorable. Yes, even your tantrums are pretty cute. Probably because I know worse is coming. For now though, I'll sit back and enjoy these toddler days. Ash, happiest of happy birthdays. We love you to the moon and back!

Machu Picchu!

One of the main highlights of Peru is Machu Picchu. This was actually the reason that we decided to come to the country at all. I know that this is something you can do with kids (check out this awesome blog!), but it wasn't something we were up for. This was the perfect opportunity to see Machu Pichu while we're still relatively young and healthy--and kid free!

Let me tell you, Machu Picchu lives up to all of the hype! I was worried that it wouldn't be that amazing in person, but pictures really don't do this site justice. You can't capture the breadth and depth of the ruins. Scale is so hard to comprehend until you're standing in the middle of them, or viewing them from the top of a mountain--like we did!

View of Machu Picchu from the top of Huayna Picchu  

But let's start at the beginning where we waited in the pouring rain for more than an hour to get up to the top. We grabbed a poncho from the lady on the street, and thankfully it cleared up as soon as we drove up to the base of Machu Picchu.

View at Machu Picchu 

View a few minutes later

We hired a guide at the entrance gates. It's really simple to do and most of them speak English pretty well. We had tickets to climb Huayna Picchu starting at 10:00, so we had a few hours to explore. To be honest, it didn't hit me as immediately as it did Dan. He was wowed before the clouds even lifted. For me though, it was hearing about the city, how they excavated it from the jungle, and seeing the ritual rooms they built that made me grasp just how impressive the Incans were. I can't begin to describe what difficult terrain this is. But the Incans were able to build great cities and create arable land out of it--without many tools!

We left our guide to start our hike up Huayna Picchu around 10:45. We read online that climbing this mountain (the one you see in the background of that first picture) was a challenge. It is steep, with little-to-no safety railings, and can be slippery at times. I can, in fact, confirm those facts. It was strenuous! And, thankfully I'm not afraid of heights, but Dan is, and it got a little dicey at times.


Oh, also, did I mention at times you had to crawl through caves? That was extra special for my claustrophobic husband.

And then we had to do the same thing on the way down! But it really was a fun hike. It took us around 3.5 hours to do both ways. It was hard, but one of those things you feel really proud of yourself for doing afterward.

After the climb my legs felt like jello, but I knew we wanted to climb up to the Guard Tower to get the iconic view you see on all the post cards. It was hard, but so worth it! They had a bunch of llamas up top (strictly for tourism), including a baby llama. So cute!

It was a fantastic day that I won't soon forget. If you've got Machu Picchu on your bucket list--do it!

See our other stops in Peru:
Itinerary
Lima in Two Days
Getting to the Sacred Valley
Moray and Maras
Horseback Riding in the Sacred Valley
Cusco and Pisac

Getting to the Sacred Valley

After a beautiful day in Lima, we were off to explore the Sacred Valley. The easiest way to get there is by flying from Lima to Cusco on a quick hour and fifteen minute flight. There are some very early flights (starting at 6am), but we chose to leave just before ten, which still got us in around 11:15.

We were told that getting to the Lima airport is crazy and you need to allocate several hours for the traffic and security lines. It's true that the traffic is pretty bad, but the airport itself wasn't terrible. In fact, we got there pretty early and had enough time to book our Peru Rail tickets from Cusco to Aguas Calientes. Here's a tip: book your rail tickets early. We assumed we would just buy them when we got to Cusco because we weren't sure what time we wanted. We got lucky and had the last seats for the train we wanted. Tickets are expensive--we spent $380 for two round-trip tickets from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes--but it's just what you have to do.

From Cusco, we hired a taxi to take us straight to Ollantaytambo. Cusco is at 11,000+ feet above sea level, whereas Ollantaytambo is only at 9,000. Going further into the valley was a great way to get our bodies acclimated to the elevation.

The taxi ride took a couple of hours and was absolutely stunning! I couldn't get over the gorgeous, lush, green mountains. Our driver was a Cusco local and we had a really great conversation about his culture, Peruvian politics and American politics--all in Spanish! That was a first! He was great at pointing out things as we were going by, and even stopped by some alpacas so we could take a picture.

He dropped us off right in the center of Ollantaytambo where we grabbed a quick lunch with a view before heading to our train.

We opted for Peru Rail over Inca Rail mostly based on some online reviews we read and train time availability. It was a great choice. The train was beautiful and comfortable (and they served tea and snacks!). Mostly though, I loved how in the 90+ minute ride we saw multiple climates from desert to rain forest. It was truly incredible.

The train dropped us off in Aguas Calientes, an adorable town in the Sacred Valley. We stayed here for the night before heading to Machu Pichu the next day. I can't believe our luck. We were exploring the town in the evening and kept seeing different marching bands and dancers dressed in costume parading down the streets. We followed one band and found ourselves at the town square in front of the church celebrating La Fiesta de las Cruces (Festival of the Cross):

It is a ceremony in which each community decorates the cross of its church and prepares it for its procession to churches in neighboring communities. This celebration held in gratitude to pre-Hispanic gods for bountiful harvests, also serves as a setting for folklore shows. (source)

This holiday was clearly not for the tourists. All the locals were out dancing, singing, and parading. I love getting glimpses into the local culture like this.

Next up: Machu Pichu!

See our other stops in Peru:
Itinerary
Lima in Two Days
Machu Picchu
Moray and Maras
Horseback Riding in the Sacred Valley
Cusco and Pisac

Dear Zahara: 5 Years

Dear Zahara,

Happy fifth birthday! Next year you're off to kindergarten. It's hard to believe that the little baby we brought home from the hospital and carted all around Europe is already five. But then again, when I watch you, and listen to you, sometimes it's hard to believe you're only five.

Zahara, this has been a great year. You've matured right before our eyes. You're still you--meaning that your spirited personality and take-charge attitude lead they way--but you have also gained more empathy and patience. Don't get me wrong, we LOVE that you are strong-willed and don't take no for an answer. Sometimes we would just prefer that you focus that attention outward instead of just on us. Truly though, it's that determination that leaves me no doubt about whether you will succeed in life. You won't accept any other outcome than success.

You're not just strong opinions though, you're also really clever. You love learning--especially languages. You just finished your second year in Hebrew immersion school where you also took Spanish lessons, and your grandparents speak to you in Russian. Funny story: I got a call from the headmaster of your school asking if I wanted to put your Spanish lessons on our tab, or pay separately. I explained to her that we decided we weren't going to enroll in a second semester which is why we hadn't paid. She informed me that you took matters into your own hands two weeks prior and convinced both your regular teachers and the Spanish teacher that they were mistaken, and you were absolutely supposed to be attending the lessons. You were so convincing that the Headmaster just assumed I had forgotten to pay.

You're also doing well with the English language. You continue to devour as many books as we're willing to read you a day. I'm excited for this next year when I think you'll start reading on your own. You can already do a few sight words (go, no, stop, dog, cat, Zahara), but I think you'll pick it up in earnest this year. Then there will be no stopping you.

In addition to reading, you could spend all day doing arts and crafts. Mostly coloring with crayons or markers, but you're happy with glue, stickers, beads, or any other craft. It's your most requested gift item.

The biggest ways in which we've seen you mature are your empathy and patience. You're having fewer tantrums, each with a shorter duration--thank heavens! Don't get me wrong. You still throw down. But it's easier to get you to calm down. And you're less violent. Thanks! You're also a lot more patient with Asher and other friends who come to play. You are a great host and love showing people our house. You share really nicely, especially with younger kids. It makes me so proud to see that side of you.

Zahara, happy birthday! We love you oodles and oodles of noodles!