Ollantaytambo

The town is so hard to pronounce that even the locals just say Ollanta. We knew we’d find our friends Fred and Regine and the kids here, so we stopped on the way and bought a cake for Bode’s birthday.

With orange Jell-O on top, it was pretty disgusting for adult taste buds. The kids liked it. They smashed open the piñata (after the concept was explained in French) and spent the next couple of days playing. We even discovered the lawn game of sapo.

Angela and I spent the next few days trying to figure out how to see Machu Picchu without breaking the bank. We spoke to more than one traveler who decided to skip it because of the expense – ridiculous if you’ve already traveled all this way.

We also made our first attempt at drinking chicha -the local brew. We found the wrong chicharia and went in for a taste. It was horrible and tasted like yeast and water. This particular place made a tamer version diluted with juice and it was at least bearable, but still pretty bad. We will succeed.