Thanks to Mom's efforts not to go on a "sissy tour" of Peru, we ditched the tour van today for a mountain bike. The day's sight-seeing began with a fairly strenuous 13 km bike ride across the Peruvian countryside. We rode through small towns and saw the authentic way of Andean life in the Sacred Valley. My mom decided to entertain herself (or distract herself from the pain in her thighs) by counting the different types of animal poop she rode over in her bike. By the end of the morning, she had reached 6 (& a half)! Pig, bull, goat, sheep, dog, llama, and what very well might have been human. We made our way to the Inca archeological site of Moray. There are four impressive terraced circular "greenhouses" remaining at Moray. We enjoyed a picnic lunch of salad and yogurt before hopping in the van to drive 20 minutes to Maras. Once in Maras, we hopped back on the bikes for a 6 km technical (and a bit scary) ride to the salt mines outside of Maras. The mines have been in operation since Incan times and are still fully functional today. After 19 km of riding, we were ready to call it a day and head back to Sol y Luna just before it started to rain. On the ride back, we were treated with a gorgeous double rainbow that you could see from end to end. Amazing!
We took advantage of the hotel's nightly show offering upon our return to Urabamba where we saw a strange Cirque du Soleil-esque rendition of Incan religion played out on stage. A condor representative of the heavens battled with a snake who represents the underworld. The battled ensued to convince a man portraying a puma, the Incan god of the present life, to join their side. As in any culture, the condor ultimately lured the puma away from the serpent to the forces of good.
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