Urubamba and the Sacred Valley

There are three types of trains that get you to and from Machu Picchu. The Hiram Bingham, an impressive train run by the Orient Express (Belmond) people, The "expedition" or a train that crams you in with big windows, nice luggage racks, but no roof windows (well, some roof windows), and the Vistadome. You can see the Vistadome here:

It lives up to its name. But it is pretty crowded and very tight. Luckily we shared our table with a very amenable Australian retired Landscape Architect and a family of Brits on vacation. We all got along and told stories. Did you know that you can raise Birds of Paradise in the Australian rain forest? I thought he was talking about the actual BIRDS, but he was talking about the flowers. I was very disappointed.

But the train ride was nice.

And it was pretty slow.

But it stopped right at our hotel,  the Tambo del Inca.

The morning when we got in, we were able to see what sort of a view we had:

It was pretty nice.

And here was our little patio:

We spent some time out there later in the day.

The Urubamba River was just a very short hop from our patio.

Here is Doreen and the river

Here is another view from the hotel:

We asked about walking into town (the town is also called Urubamba).

It was a short ten minute walk to the market in town, and another couple to the Plaza de Armas.

The market was great!

These were dried potatoes for sale.

You can see the variety of potatoes available, and more later in the story:

Here you can see yucca root and peppers:

Here was a goat offal stand:

and pork:

and cheese! We loved the Andean cheese that was offered at every breakfast buffet.

Beautiful fresh vegetables:

and this purple corn was everywhere! They used it for everything. They made a soft drink (Chicha) out of it, they used it to make a sweet syrup (High Fructose, I am sure), and to make cheese cake as well. Delicious.

Here are more potatoes, and the potato lady.

These were big yellow corn kernels that looked like they had been sprouted. I am not sure if they were, but I think they make the alcoholic version of Chicha from this. (The old ladies chew the kernels and then spit them into a vat. The enzymes in the saliva starts the fermentation. It gets up to about 3% alcohol)

This lady sold chocolates and grains (Quinoa and Kiwicha), coca leaves, various other goods. We bought some chocolate from her.

Fruits. They are crazy about passion fruit here - which surprises me a little. It is a very sour fruit and most Peruvian sweets are very, very sweet.

They are having a bull fight soon,

The fountain in the middle of the Plaza de Armas looks like a big ear of corn.

While we were sitting in the Plaza, there was a small rally to try and get people to give them their used electronic equipment! I was very happy to see that, and even happier that many people were giving up their old electronics. A much better way to get rid of things than to just dump them by the side of the road.

More little Toritos.

and more purple corn

But they have white corn too:

 and plenty of gourds

These little three wheelers are called Moto-taxies and are everywhere. They are smaller than the tuck-tucks you see in Southeast Asia, but are similar in design. A motorcycle with a passenger compartment.

We didn't take one, but were  told that they only cost one or two soles (2.75 soles to the dollar)

Fava beans are also a favorite here. You see them at almost every meal.

One last photo from Urubamba, but it could be almost anywhere we have been in Peru so far - Adobe being dried in the sun.

This was a nice place to land for a couple of days. We are not usually hard travelers, and this has not been a hard trip. But having no itinerary and no place to be is a good thing in travel.