Sunday 3/1/2026
We left Cuzco with Guido talking about the many potato varieties his friend had identified. The mountains began to tower over us as we reached the ruins at Pisac. As we hiked up by the terraces, Guido explained to us that the Incas built the retaining walls out of stones with high heat retention that would radiate out daytime heat into the soil at night, creating microclimates that could support crops from warmer climates that would not otherwise have been able to survive in the mountains. The Incas would store their grain in granaries with wide doors and stone canals to channel wind in, air-cooling their stores. We then went to the ruins above Ollantaytambo, where Guido told us about Inca rituals and stories, and then told me and Nate that we were the fastest in the group and should explore the terraces, so we did. It was very windy. We spent the afternoon at a farm next to town where we learned about Pachamanca, a cooking method where marinated meats and vegetables are placed in a granite pit with hot stones and covered with wet leaves, tarp, and soil to pressure cook the meal. They use granite for the pit because of its heat resistance. Our plates were full of chicken, beef, guinea pig, salmon, beets, carrots, potatoes, beans, and more. It was a very filling and picturesque lunch/dinner.
Monday 3/2/2026
We went to a llama project in the morning, where they showed us how to tie packs to them before setting out up a mountainside. Our guide told us about South American camelids (a vicuna is the wild version of an alpaca, and a guanaco is the wild version of a llama), as well as the history of llamas transporting goods in the Andes. Since the Spanish conquest, mules have become more widely used as pack animals, but they impact the environment. Mules can carry more weight than llamas, but are heavier on trails and grasses and are not native to Peru. When I asked her how large llamas used to be before the conquest, Catalina said that they used to be 170cm tall and could carry 50kgs. Part of why they are not as preferred now is because they cannot carry as much, so the llama project is trying to breed them back to what they once were and make them more widely used, for tradition and the environment. We had lunch on the mountainside before heading back down.
Average day in Peru:
Tuesday 3/3/2026
After we visited the salt mines, we went on an ATV trek along scenic mountain trails. We reached terraces where the Incas experimented with potatoes, and walking around its perimeter revealed just how massive the structure was. We left the potato laboratory to a buffet with a peak view of the mountains for lunch, and then back to the ATV garage. After relaxing at the hotel for that afternoon, I wandered around Urubamba for an hour before going to bed.
