Peru Trip: Sacred Valley Ctd - Pisac

I'm soooooo tired, so I'm going to keep this post as brief as poss. I've been getting up early and heading to bed late, averaging about 5 hours sleep a night for the past week or so, so last night I decided to skip Pilates in favour of an early night. By 9pm I was falling asleep in front of the TV and by 9.30pm I was tucked up in bed. So far so good, except come 2am I was still friggin' awake!! I hate it when that happens. Usually I get so stressed out about not being able to fall asleep that...well, I can't fall asleep. Ugh!! This morning I was up at 6am to sneak in some work before a full day training course - which I got through with the help of copious amounts of coffee - followed by 3 more hours of actual work before I toppled out of the office, woozy from caffeine, and poured myself into a cab. It called for way too much effort to walk the 10-minutes to the subway and I knew that if I took the train to 86th street my feet would take me via the wine store on the way home, so taking a cab directly to my door was for the best, since I'm trying to avoid winding down with the assistance of Cabernet Sauvignon. Wine is my boyfriend replacement these days!! Instead of coming home to a hug from a lovely man I come home to a glass of Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Viognier, Pinot Noir...I'm quite promiscuous as far as my wine boyfriends are concerned and I have absolutely no idea who the father of the wine baby is that I've been cultivating of late!! Oh advertising, you are driving me to drink, although admittedly, you didn't have to drive me far!!

So, the Sacred Valley of the Incas...after the visit to Planeterra we headed for the Inca ruins at Pisac/Pisaq, stopping for photos of the valley along the way.

Pretty!!! Although be warned, women will run up to you and try to sell you dried corn and jewelry. No matter how remote you feel you are in Peru someone will pop up and try to sell you something!!

The Inca ruins at Pisac lie at the top of a hill at the entrance to the Urabamba Valley. The Incas were pretty fond of their hills eh!! The number of ruins that aren't at the top of hills seem to be few and far between. Those Incans had a sense of humour!!

The site of Pisac is characterized by its farming terraces which were created by lugging the richer topsoil from below and allowed the Incas to grow a surplus of food that wouldn't typically be possible at these altitudes.

Impressive, but also frighteningly windy on the day we were up there which had me concerned about being blown off the mountain whilst on the Inca trail. Gulp!!

After the ruin we stopped at Pisac market, which I loved. So much so I supported the local economy with the purchase of a solid silver bangle for about $50. My bracelet was stamped with 950 which Melissa informed me is a higher quality silver than you find in the US. Apparently this number refers to how much actual silver is in the product vs. silver/copper blend. Melissa said that in the US the best you can get is 925 and that 950 is as high as you can go before the proportion of silver makes it too soft to work with!! Quite honestly I have no idea and was way too tired/lazy/trollied to Google, but I know I love love love my bangle!!