We got the train back reasonably early and planned to get a bus to some town, to get a cab to a couple other places, and continue to Cusco. In the end a cabbie offered us a ride to the same places and Cusco for about the same price, so we just did that.
Ruins literally everywhere.
Looking back up towards Aguas Calientes from the cab.
The first place we wanted to go (this place) only sold tickets that lasted 2 days and gave access to something like 7 different sites around Cusco. We only wanted to visit the one though, and right then, but the collective ticket was too expensive so we left. Didn't even let us look over the edge for a peek.
Quinoa fields.
The second place we wanted to go was this salt farm. Each little pool is serviced by a family from the nearby town, and any family in town is entitled to a pond. Newer families get shitter ponds. I wasn't really expecting it to be so big.
There was only 4 or 5 people working there while we visited, I assume they spend a lot of time sitting around waiting for the sun to do its thing.
One of the many little channels that delivered ridiculously salty water to the ponds through a bit of clever irrigation.
After the salt farm, the driver offered to take us to a textile collective and see how they do everything, so we went and checked that out too.
I didn't ask if these ones were food...
Different coloured wool with the dyes they use below.
After cutting the wool off with a shard of glass, it's washed in water and grated yuca, a natural shampoo.
You often see girls or women spinning wool walking around town, apparently the only time they stop is when they're doing something else.
I think this was from some ground seeds. Depending on what they mix it with they can make 15 or so different reds with the one seed. On the right, just the seed; on the left, with lemon juice.
I still don't understand how this shit works. That's for a table runner, and there's carefully-counted threads in the thousands on there.
Each village has its own designs, passed down since who knows when. This village made symmetrical designs.
Sewing the edge pattern on. Apparently that's a thing that's only done in this village.
It's quite nice.
Each one of these takes 20 days or so to make, and there was piles of them.
Not sure what this thing is meant to be, they had a bunch of weird knick-knacks.
Some amount of time after getting back to Cusco (the next day, probably), we got a bus to Arequipa, a bit out of mum's itinerary of Machu Picchu and Lake Titicaca, but that seemed a bit light.
Most of the scenery for the first half of the trip was like this. Then we went through Juliaca, my first of 4 trips on what were probably the worst roads I've seen anywhere. Corruption and shit.
The monastery ended up being better than expected, so it can be the next post...
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