Condores, Caballos, & Cuy - Oh My!

Another active day from the vacation front, as well, as active as one could be while on vacation.

First up - the condors.  Christine and I woke up at 5:30am (yup, you read that right, yet another 5:30am wake up call, and yes, we are on vacation) to get an early rise to see the Andean Condors.  These are the world's largest flight capable birds, with wingspans of nearly 12 feet.  We departed the hotel at 7am to get a headstart on the variety of European tourists who would also descend upon the area to see the condors as well.  Luckily we made it in time, and our guide, Jeymi, was excellent at pointing out where they were.  Indeed these are some of the most amazing creatures that I have ever seen.  However, they don't like noise, and unfortunately, there was a rowdy group of British kids on their gap year who apparently had more interest in making loud conversation than watching the flight of the condors.  People gave them nasty looks, but did nothing - but leave it to my sister to use her teacher voice to say, "SHHHHH!!! Be quiet!!!" which elicited an almost immediate silence from the group.  Silence didn't last for long as throngs of Germans, French, Brits, Aussies, and citizens of nations from around the globe descended on this cliff sitting some 10,000 ft above the canyon below.  Still, the sight of the condors was amazing, although I didn't really need to see one expel solid waste (to put it politely).

From the Condor Cross (as it is known) it was a journey back to the hotel with various stops at some amazing Inca and Pre-Inca sites.  After a nice lunch and a nap, it was time for a second activity - horseback riding.  We took a nice 2 hour ride up the hillside of the valley to get a great view.  However, Christine seemed to be saddled with the horse who had a mind of its own.  When the guide and I were on the left side of the road, Christine was on the right, and vice versa.  At some points Christine's horse just didn't feel like climbing and would just stop in place.

After a refreshing dip in the thermal plunge pool and a shower to wash off the trail dust, it was time for a cooking lesson with the hotel chef.  He prepared an amazingly simple dish of quinoa and alpaca filet that was absolutely delicious.  Christine watched intently as I furiously took notes.  The results were amazing, and hopefully we can be sharing the recipe in the future.

Finally we met the other two guests staying at our hotel, the father-daughter team of Bruce and Alana, both originally from Manhattan Beach via Colorado.  Very nice people, and we had very good conversation over dinner and drinks.  It was kind of odd because Alana kept calling her dad by his first name, and it was evident that her parents were divorced.  We had a very raucous conversation, at times overpowering the group of 17 sitting right next to us (I think partly because Bruce and Alana had a bit too much wine...).  However, Christine being the introvert found it very tiring, so we retired back to the room.  I imagine we'll be bumping into them over the next couple of days.

Oh, and last but not least, I ate cuy - or known to us as guinea pig.  It was breaded, fried, and mixed in with a salad.  So what did it taste like?  Sorry to say that old colloquialism, but it tasted like chicken.

Hasta Luego

- Joe