San Pedro Mercado

All this food for $1.75 each

Scott looked this up online: llama fetuses for talisman/offerings in order to bring prosperity to a household. Eeks 

Dried fish eggs, clams, fresh sea algae, freeze dried potatoes

Medicine made from snakes. Yikes

Scott's Spanish has become quite good 

over the years- he was able to make a special request for a bag of mixed     chips.

Such a sweet elderly lady! She made us the best smoothies from 6 tropical fruits for 75 cents a glass.

I had a tummy issue last night but I went at it full force today and so far,

 so good. We have been eating and drinking everything but treating any water outside Cusco.

Halfway through our purchase, It became apparent that this lady was peeing into a bucket when we first came to her stall. Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do..she deftly pulled up her panties and took our money for some avocados.

Some tidbits from these last days:

We got picked up for our trek at 5 am and driven for 4 hours into the mountains at the most dangerous speeds imaginable. Terrifying! The driver drove triple the speed limit and passed every vehicle, often on blind turns. I was not a happy camper.

Trekking in Peru involves staying at set campsites, where tents are set up in structures, and the cooks get separate alcoves for cooking. Vitoriano was our chef and he made extraordinary food on a little propane stove - soups, 

omelettes, stews, trout, fried potatoes, etc. 

There was a dead horse at Salkantay Pass - horses and people work so very hard here.

People were having difficulty with altitude (15,200 ft) and were quite ill - small burros were sent up to carry big people up and over. One French gal we passed was gray and very ill. We were fine because we had spent days acclimatizing.

The Andes were just as impressive as the Himalayas!

We loved our small group of five. The young European gals kept asking me how Scott knows so many things, how he can be so strong, how old he is, how he can be so cheerful all the time. They were smitten. Also, at one campsite he rescued a 7 week old kitten accidentally locked in a shed, so he is my hero. 

Aguascalientes and Machu Picchu were amazing of course, but the prices were sky high, local people were annoyed, and there were just so many people! 

We made many dog friends along the way. One sweet husky/Shepard teenager pup followed us for a whole day to Aguascalientes. We all worried over this pup but after a retriever followed me to Machu Picchu, then found my hotel later and waited in the foyer, I realized the dogs here latch on to any kind of nice vibe and choose a person for the day. People feed them, clearly, but they are all skinny. None are fixed. 

Our horseman's dog was locked in the house to keep him home but he found a way out and trekked 4 very full days with us, happy to eat only our leftovers, sleeping on the cold dirt. He allowed us to scratch his head from time to time. I will always associate dogs with Peru.

Enough for tonight...