Sacred Valley

Peru! Our first stop was the Sacred Valley (valley of the Urubamba River), heading from Cuzco toward Machu Picchu (with posts on each of those to follow). First, the landscape is stunningly beautiful. Doesn't even look real, right?

We spent an afternoon in the HIGH highlands, at like 13,000 feet, where we had a lunch and our introduction to local staple coca tea.

And then made a stop at Moray, an Incan archaeological site where the Incans did agricultural research and testing through ingenious terraced microclimates.

I would have loved to have spent more time exploring this area above the valley, with its incredibly picturesque sights.

But there was also the valley to explore! Ollantaytambo is a fascinating Incan site as well, and the adjacent town was super-quaint and not totally destroyed by tourism.

The town still relies on the drainage systems that were enduringly well-engineered by the Incans.

We also got our first intro to the alpaca weaving projects and products that we all got obsessed with pretty quickly. My favorite part (other than marveling at how these women have memorized the patterns they are weaving) was learning about how they create all the different natural dye colors. GORGEOUS.