Ollantaytambo

Last night, after our long journey to Ollanta, we arrived at our B & B, Casa de Wow! Funny name, but it has been a great landing place so far. The sun sets here somewhere between 6:00pm - 6:30pm, so by the time we arrived there wasn't any daylight left. Our hostess left us a note and a key at a local cafe so we could let ourselves in. She and some of the guests were away helping plant crops (it is Spring here), so she made plans for her absence. We were exhausted anyway, so by the time we found our place (it took us a little while to get our bearings), we knew we needed to find a place to eat and crash.

We decided to go back to the cafe that we picked up our key from - Hearts Cafe. This cozy little restaurant is located on the square, or Plaza de Armas here in Ollanta. It was about a 5 minute walk from our B & B. The cafe advertises all organic food and has some really great vegetarian options as well. Similar to our previous experience with Ninos, Hearts Cafe provides funds to a local non-profit to help underprivileged children. Approx. 45% of Peruvians are living below the poverty threshold, meaning many kiddos go without basic needs being met. The cafe had lots of pictures posted and information for guests. We weren't aware of their involvement with the non-profit beforehand, but were glad we could support such a worthwhile organization.

Eric had a Veggie Burger, fries and a salad (he actually order the "Chile Chicken Burger", but they messed up the order) and I had the Menu of the Day, which was typical Peruvian food - Stewed Chicken, Potato & Rice with a tomato, carrot, onion sauce over the top. We had a few hiccups with our order, making it a less than ideal experience, but we would be willing to give it a second try. Eric's order was wrong, and although the salad was exceptional, the burger was just so-so. My food was great, but there were some issues in getting it. They first brought out a Quinoa soup, which was fine, and then I had to ask for my main course. We also had to ask for utensils and my drink three times. Truthfully, they were swamped and understaffed. When Eric went up to pay they were apologetic and explained that they were in the middle of training new employees. I think we'd be willing to give is a second shot.

Afterwards we made our way back to our B & B and crashed. Hard. Both of us slept great, though neither of us was able to sleep in (boo!).

Breakfast is served a bit later here at the Casa, so we had to wait a bit to eat this morning. A little after 9:00am we went down to the dining room and ate a meal with guests from all over - Wales, Australia, Peru. They serve a free breakfast here of eggs (prepared how you'd like them), bread and jam/marmalade, and tea or coffee. Breakfast was great and it was really neat to get to visit with other travelers. The couple we spoke with the majority of the time was from Wales and was just wrapping up a 4 month tour of South America (Argentina, Chile, all over Peru, etc.). Each of us had a couple of eggs and bread (similar to a bagel) with marmalade with our tea before we went back upstairs and got ready for the day. The other guests and our host were able to give us tips on how to get to some local ruins. In fact, our B & B has a terrific book section on Peru and more specifically the ruins of the Sacred Valley. Once geared up for the day we finally made our way outside to get our first glimpse of Ollanta. I've included a couple of photos of the view right outside our B & B. This was the start of another day's adventure.