Hey Babe!
Got a full night sleep and then some, had a nice breakfast at their buffet, and was packed up and ready to go by 9:00, though I then discovered the pickup had been change to 9:30 due to bad traffic because of a huge parade of some kind, but no matter. I managed to track down the rest of the Perolchico participants for this week's ride, and we all chatted for a bit. There's Monique from NJ (very close to Meg's place!), a professional Boxer dog breeder, trainer and handler, Alicia from Seattle, a flight attendant for United, Jane, a retired Fish & Wildlife gal from Northern California, and Sanne, a communications and media specialist from the Netherlands. Quite an eclectic group! We hit the road and wound our way through the narrow streets out of Cusco to the Sacred Valley, with a fascinating stop at a small textile place, where we were treated to an informative demonstration (and tea!) of how all the materials are made by hand. If I hadn't just bought a poncho yesterday, I would have been very tempted to buy one here! I actually liked the design better, but, oh well! We eventually made our way to the next hotel, the Sonesta Posadas del Inca, another beautiful building, where we dropped off our luggage, then headed up to the historic Hacienda Huayuccari, a family owned building that houses an amazing privately-owned museum, an incredible restaurant, beautiful gardens, and just up the hill from where we will be starting off with our horses. We toured the incredible museum, had a fabulous lunch, then went down to meet our caballos (horses) for the first time. I was placed on a sorrel gelding called Nevaba (which means "it was snowing"), and he turned out to very much like Flash, always wanting to move ahead, and getting a little impatient when I tried to hold him back. I'm assuming that after this intro ride, we'll be able to move out a bit more so I won't have to hold him back (fingers crossed). The weather was gorgeous, and though we were mostly on country gravel roads, it was a wonderful ride. Everyone else seemed to do well, and I loved the very secure tack that comes with these guys, so I'm looking forward to a great week! We got back to the hacienda, then drove back down to the hotel, finally got our room assignments, so we were able to take a couple of hours to rest before we were picked up and whisked off for dinner. Frankly, after that huge lunch, I didn't need anything else, but it was pre-arranged, so I couldn't very well say no! And in the end, glad I didn't, because that was yet another experience! Though it was only a few blocks away, we drove there, and the "road" that we drove on was barely wider than single lane and had an irrigation ditch about four feet deep right in the middle of it. There were a couple of moments when I thought for sure we were too much to one side and the tires would go into the ditch, but we made it! But that wasn't the worst part. Once we arrived at the house we had to do a K turn, where yet another, much wider irrigation ditch, with no curb, was on the edge of this barely single lane "road." A few more harrow moments! But the house was beautiful, the dinner was marvelous, served up by a woman who is apparently going to be our chef for most of the meals this week, bringing us lunch on the trail as we go. It was delicious! First course was a Peruvian classic, causa, which is layers of yellow potato, hard-boiled eggs and meat, in this case, tuna, with some other stuff in the layers, and that was followed by kebabs of fresh vegetables and melt-in-your-mouth chicken, with a choice of bite size brownies for dessert. We were all stuffed! After being stuffed at lunch and now stuffed at dinner, I expect a good jump on my scales when I get home, if this keeps up! Anyway, back to the hotel, shower, and now ready for a good night sleep! Our pickup time is 9:30 tomorrow, so no rush to get up early, thank goodness. What a great day! Good night, my darlin'! Love you!
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