Riding Through the Andes

This story starts two days ago, on Monday, when Alex and I were walking through the central plaza, taking pictures of the amazingly beautiful day, with all of its colors, flags, and bright blue sky, when suddenly Alex hears "caballos." I totally missed it, but this fellow standing about 4 feet away from us was handing out cards detailing horseback riding adventures through the Andes. After a few seconds of consideration (mostly me saying "please, please, please" and Alex grimacing because he is slightly horse-phobic) we decided to talk to Umberto. He took us into his office, we discussed the condition of the horses, where we would go, and how these things work out. Conveniently, we had just one more day left on our 10-day tourist ticket (remember, the one that cost us 140 soles?), and on this horseback riding journey we could visit 3 of the places remaining on the ticket! That convinced Alex and we signed up.

So, yesterday we suited up, met Umberto at 9 a.m. sharp, and were chauffeured (in a very nice car) to the stables, just outside of Cusco, and near Sacsayhuaman (where the Inti Raymi festival was held). We were met by a fellow wearing sweatpants, Converses, and a baseball hat, who told us that he was our "horse man." He asked us about our horse experience (mine being a lot, Alex's being none) and picked out horses for us. I inspected them--looking at their feet, their muscles, etc. and decided that they were well cared for and quite healthy (you hear stories about shabby, unhealthy horses for tourists--but these horses were obviously loved). My horse was a white horse called Rosie, and Alex's was a sorrel horse,with a shiny, spiky mane, named Percio. Our horse man, interestingly, did not ride a horse. Instead, he chose to follow us, having a very friendly conversation in Spanish, and playing traditional Peruvian music on his wooden flute.

The first hour was straight up the side of a mountain, winding through tall grasses, navigating over bumpy terrain, and sidestepping large rocks. The higher we went, the more we could see of the surrounding towns, of Cusco, and of the mountains extending forever into the distance. Once we arrived to the top, we dismounted, and walked down a winding, rural road to visit the first set of ruins. These were Puca Pucara, formerly an Incan fortress and check-in site, and Tambomachay, which apparently was an Incan ritual bath house. Puca Pucara was pretty amazing--anchored to the side of a cliff and looming up over the mountainside. While we were there there was an older man and his grandson (presumably). The man was so adorable! He was taking pictures of everything and having his grandson record him walking around the ruins. He asked us if we wanted him to take a picture of Alex and me standing near the edge of the ruins, and then afterward, he asked me to be in a picture with him so he could remember us. Tambomachay was not quite as interesting as Puca Pucara, it was simply a short road with ruins to the left side. There were, however, some very stately alpacas hanging out there. After this, we hiked back down the rural road, to the site where our horses were waiting.

Along the way we met up with a decently large white dog with brown patches who was incredibly friendly. We petted him and he decided that he was going to lead us back to the horse spot. Whenever he got too far ahead of us, he would stop and wait until we caught up. It was adorable. When we came back to our horses, there were suddenly like 35 more horses, where groups of tourists had made their way up the mountain too. Luckily, we were way ahead of them and didn't encounter them again. Anyway, with our new dog pal in tow, we got back on our horses and rode down the mountain. My horse was pretty opposed to going down, so I ended up taking an interesting, very windy path to the bottom of the mountain. Once there, I found myself in between two people riding their horses for leisure. One of these people was set on getting his horse to go full speed, and my horse was set on making sure she was constantly in the lead. Thus, I had a fun jaunt around the bottom of the mountain (it really was pretty fun), racing this fellow (unintentionally), until we arrived at a small stream, where our horses hopped over and promptly decided it was time for a break. I waited a good few minutes before Alex and our guide made it down the mountain, and then we dismounted again to explore the Temple of the Moon.

The Temple of the Moon is basically a large rock with two caves in it and some ritual ruins in front of it. Alex and I climbed to the top to look out over the valley. There we were harassed by a hipster-looking fellow who asked if we needed a guide (which, of course, we said no). We then climbed down the face of this very large rock and discovered an entrance to one of the caves. It was basically a narrow crack, with not much inside, but regardless, it was still exciting to explore. After our adventures here, we found our horses again and pursued the last leg of our ride.

This part was the most amazing. Our guide was playing his wooden flute, the wind was lightly blowing, and if you looked, you could see the valley all the way to the horizon. It was one of the most peaceful experiences I've had in my life. We rode down a dusty road, next to some large farms, through a tiny, rural village, and finally dismounted right before we reached a small town near Sacsayhuaman. We thanked our guide and tipped him, then proceeded to hike through a cedar-like forest until we reached the two remaining Incan ruin sites that were on our tourist ticket. We meandered through them, hiked back down to Cusco, and had amazing bbq veggie burgers for lunch. It really was one of the most perfect days ever.