Sep. 24, 2016.  Hospedaje Kinsa Cocha, Pisac, Peru.

• Taxi to terminal terrestre to purchase night ticket for tomorrow's bus ride to Nazca ($22 for 15 hour ride in luxury bus with tilt-back sleeping chair; includes a meal).  

• Then local bus to Pisac ($2.50).  Checked into hostal at around 10, still feeling a little off - was it the bus ride + hike to Rainbow Mountain? - so decided to take a taxi to the top of the Pisac Inca ruins and walk back, with a bottle of water, a bag of cashews (from the same vendor in the Mercado San Pedro that Len bought from  - even had another maracuya/orange jugo from the same old lady), a mandarin orange, and a candy bar in my wonderful ultralight waterproof backpack.  

• But first a walk around the central plaza to check out the Mercado de Artesania, which is by far the biggest and most touristy in the region.  I can't believe how big it was, with everything from textiles to carved chess sets.  Not my style, and happy to see it before the crowds arrive tomorrow.

• The taxi up was a smart move, even though it cost $8 (gasp), given my weakened condition.  A gazillion tour buses at the top of the ruins, sort of felt like Machu Picchu crowds, but everybody was on tours, which meant they only visited the top portion of the massive ruins, so I was pretty much alone as soon as I headed down on foot back to Pisac.  What a great walk: agricultural terracing, sweeping around the south and east flanks of the mountain in huge and graceful curves, almost entirely unbroken by steps (which require greater maintenance and promote erosion).  Instead, the terracing is joined by diagonal flights of stairs made of flagstones set into the terrace walls.  Above the terraces are cliff-hugging footpaths, defended by massive stone doorways, steep stairs, and even a short tunnel carved out of the rock.  

• Topping the terraces is the site's ceremonial center, with an "Intihuatana" ("hitching post of the sun", an Inca astronomical tool), several working water channels, and some painstakingly neat masonry in the well-preserved temples.  Looking across a gorge from the back of the site, you can see hundreds of holes honeycombing the cliff wall.  These are inca tombs that were plundered by 'huaqueros' (grave robbers).

• The Pisac site is huge - much bigger than Machu Picchu, and in many ways just as impressive.  If it had been later in the year, after the rains begin and everything had turned green, it would have been even more beautiful.  A great walk down, lots and lots of photos, natch.

• Looked in at the church, where women were preparing cut flowers for tomorrow's service (I assume); then the Horno Colonial San Francisco, an enormous clay oven for baking empanadas and dating back to 1830; a "castillos de cuyes" (miniature castle inhabited by guinea pigs); and a lovely Jardin Botanico, with a great collection of cacti, potatoes, and insects.

• Dinner of quinoa soup, vegetarian lasagne, and carrot cake at Ultrike's Cafe (best meal in a long time: $7}, and bed by 8.

Pisac: Jardin Botanico (with native potatoes)