Llamas and vicunas and alpacas, oh my!

Another busy day in and around Cusco. Highlight was a demonstration of weaving techniques, showing how they make yarn; dye it with natural sources like flowers, sticks, and beetles; and then turn it into beautiful items. We also visited a farm with alpacas, llamas, and vicunas. Lunched in another gorgeous hacienda where we watched a rain storm roll in and out again. Plus we climbed a bunch of steps to get to the top of an Incan palace, though historians would like to call it a fortress. (Our guide suggested it is unlikely to be a fortress, since it is so beautiful and took many many years to build, using rose grantite brought in from a faraway mountain despite other materials being available closer by. But since history is written by the conquerors, and the Spanish fought the Incans there, it has been dubbed a fortress in the history books.)

Train to Machu Picchu tomorrow!!!

(Photo shows alpaca yarn and the natural materials used to dye it.)