Our Peru experience is soon to end

Hello to all,

It is with a mix of great excitement and sadness that we will be bidding Peru farewell next week.

Brooke will be leaving May 14 for a trip to Denver first for her cousin's wedding and Adam will head to the jungle with his parents that day with a return to the States on May 17. We look forward to seeing you all and catching up! We are also very excited that Adam's parents are coming to visit starting this Friday.

This past weekend, we fit a lot in.

On Saturday, we did a great hike up above a community called Soccma to view the Periniyoc (sp?) waterfall and some remote, minimally-explored ruins.

After our awesome hike, we went to Urubamba and had a delicious curry meal at Kampu, a newer restaurant there. We cuddled with a cat (more like Brooke did), and then we set off towards the mountains to explore what we haven't before in our last weeks here.

We walked and found a cemetery, and it was all above ground and very gorgeous and peaceful. As we were leaving, we heard some loud instruments across the way, and we saw there was a parade for the "Day of the Cross". It was a big parade with a band in the form of a procession up the mountain side and we were waved at, encouraged the join the parade by some parade members. After about 30 minutes, we stopped at the top of the hill and the heavy crosses were placed down. There soon whizzed by a mototaxi filled with Cusqueña beer, frutellada (strawberry macerated chicha- Brooke's favorite), and some pisco for good measure. We were invited into a huge party with 3 meat-filled food courses, lots of traditional dancing, and lots of libations. Wow. We were definitely the only gringos (white people) there, and it was quite the hilarious, unique, crazy cultural experience in true random Peruvian fashion.

Sunday, we went to support our friends who are opening a local brewery, Cervecería del Valle,  for their opening tasting day.  We look forward to seeing how much they grow and develop around here. It was absolutely amazing to try a real IPA and we particularly liked the oatmeal coffee stout. Increíble.

Colorful choclo (Andean corn) drying across the way from our house. They will use these dried seeds to plant choclo next year.

View from our balcony at Lari Calle

A small community on the side of the mountain above Soccma

Gorgeous photo of the valley down below

Adam enthusiastic about our hike

Goat friends on the way up

Adam and the goats

The gorgeous Sacred Valley

Goats heading back to their community

Cemetery that we visited on Saturday

Parade time in Urubamba

Party in Urubamba at a house on a mountain top. We got to sit with the band!

A close-up of the ruins

Lydia, Ayo, Brooke, Adam, and Jenny Beth enjoying an afternoon of beer tasting at a new brewery in town, Cervecería del Valle, on Sunday. Holy Pale Ale.