Hola! So, after a very very cold night´s sleep, I got up on Friday and decided that I wanted to have an active day. After availing myself of the free bread, jam, and coffee at the hostel, I went out to conquer the world. The plan was to do a little wandering and to see what the outdoor adventure options for the day were at Eric´s Adventures. After a lovely stroll through the city, I got to Eric´s at about 10am. I´d missed all of the morning offerings, but signed up for horseback riding at 12pm and river rafting for the following day. I made a quick retreat to the hostel to change into horseback riding attire: basically, just long socks. :)
At 12 on the dot I was ready and waiting at the tour shop. By 12:30, we had actually got in a taxi and driven off. We drove up the road above Cusco to Sacsayhuaman. This Incan religious site was apparently dedicated to celebrating lightning. Very cool zigzag walls running along a hill looking out over the valley.
Now, here´s where it got weird. I had not bought the Boleto Touristica, a tourist pass that allows entry to all of the major sites. Instead, I planned to pay for each site as I went, ´cause I had no interest in visiting every dinky museum in Cusco. The other 4 people going for the horseback riding trip had the ticket. So, the guide who spoke no English & didn´t seem to find my Spanglish too comprehensible, decided to split me off from the group. The language barrier prevented me from understanding exactly what he was doing. I got that I was getting a separate tour, but didn´t understand why. Anyway, I was sent up a tiny trail covered in horse droppings to a little lean-to containing 4 horses and a man. Here, I was told to pick my horse, and was promptly saddled up and ready to go (the horse, not me).
An interesting factoid about Peru is that they do not use bits for their horses. I had made the mistake of indicating that I was a fairly experienced rider, though it´d been years since I´d ridden. Well, my sweet horsie and I went trotting up the hill with the guide jogging along beside us. I had been given a switch to encourage the horse to go faster. Oh joy. I admit, at first, setting off into a nice canter was exhilarating. However, this was only until I understood that my horse didn´t particularly like me and I had very limited means of controlling its behaviour without a bit. For those who aren´t familiar with riding tack, the bit is the metal bar that goes inside the horses mouth behind its teeth. It effectively will stop a horse from going forward when the rider pulls back on it. Instead of a bit, this horse had a little rope circling its muzzle with which I was supposed to let it know which way to go and when to stop. The problem with this sort of tack is that if the horse doesn´t want to stop, it takes quite a bit of arm strength to make it stop.
So, my horse decided to let me ride him, while trying to brush me off on every tree we passed, taking the occasional detour, and enjoying a few rousing gallops without permission. It was a very exciting 2 hour ride. The only downside was the fear of being thrown into one of the many rocks covering the ground.
We went up a trail to the Temple of the Moon. The temple was a bit of a bust, resembling a rock outcropping with no sign that it was anything other than a natural site. Then we came back by Tambomachay, the Inca Baths. The part that made it all worth while was the amazing outlook over the Sacred Valley. The skies were so blue with the occasional wisp of a cloud, the hills were steep and covered with amazing meadows that rose almost straight up to the skies. It helped that it was a Friday, at around 2pm, and I was leaning back on a 600 year old rock staring at this beautiful view, thinking peaceful, meditative thoughts and NOT WORKING. Hah! Take that all you worker bees!
All in all, I was quite happy with the ride and was looking forward to the next part of the tour which was due to run ´til 5pm. I was off my horse (blessed event) and down at the main road when I was informed that I would need to wait two hours for the rest of my group to get back. What????? Apparently, they all were going to visit two more sites, to which I was not invited because I didn´t have the tourist pass. Ack!!! I could wish that this had been made clear to me before I was culled from the group and taken on my own personalized trip. I could have bought the stupid ticket for $25 rather than sit around waiting for my ride back to Cusco. So, I did what any person would do and made an unpaid-for trip to Sacsayhuaman (they really should guard the gate better), and then took a cab back to the Plaza de Armas.
Just a note for those of you considering a horseback ride in the near future, Ow! My knees were stiff, I had bruises on my legs from the stirrup leathers, and sitting was a little uncomfortable for the rest of the day. However, racing down a rocky hill on an out of control horse and no pommel to grab was definitely an adventure. Thank you, Eric´s Adventures!!!
At 12 on the dot I was ready and waiting at the tour shop. By 12:30, we had actually got in a taxi and driven off. We drove up the road above Cusco to Sacsayhuaman. This Incan religious site was apparently dedicated to celebrating lightning. Very cool zigzag walls running along a hill looking out over the valley.
Now, here´s where it got weird. I had not bought the Boleto Touristica, a tourist pass that allows entry to all of the major sites. Instead, I planned to pay for each site as I went, ´cause I had no interest in visiting every dinky museum in Cusco. The other 4 people going for the horseback riding trip had the ticket. So, the guide who spoke no English & didn´t seem to find my Spanglish too comprehensible, decided to split me off from the group. The language barrier prevented me from understanding exactly what he was doing. I got that I was getting a separate tour, but didn´t understand why. Anyway, I was sent up a tiny trail covered in horse droppings to a little lean-to containing 4 horses and a man. Here, I was told to pick my horse, and was promptly saddled up and ready to go (the horse, not me).
An interesting factoid about Peru is that they do not use bits for their horses. I had made the mistake of indicating that I was a fairly experienced rider, though it´d been years since I´d ridden. Well, my sweet horsie and I went trotting up the hill with the guide jogging along beside us. I had been given a switch to encourage the horse to go faster. Oh joy. I admit, at first, setting off into a nice canter was exhilarating. However, this was only until I understood that my horse didn´t particularly like me and I had very limited means of controlling its behaviour without a bit. For those who aren´t familiar with riding tack, the bit is the metal bar that goes inside the horses mouth behind its teeth. It effectively will stop a horse from going forward when the rider pulls back on it. Instead of a bit, this horse had a little rope circling its muzzle with which I was supposed to let it know which way to go and when to stop. The problem with this sort of tack is that if the horse doesn´t want to stop, it takes quite a bit of arm strength to make it stop.
So, my horse decided to let me ride him, while trying to brush me off on every tree we passed, taking the occasional detour, and enjoying a few rousing gallops without permission. It was a very exciting 2 hour ride. The only downside was the fear of being thrown into one of the many rocks covering the ground.
We went up a trail to the Temple of the Moon. The temple was a bit of a bust, resembling a rock outcropping with no sign that it was anything other than a natural site. Then we came back by Tambomachay, the Inca Baths. The part that made it all worth while was the amazing outlook over the Sacred Valley. The skies were so blue with the occasional wisp of a cloud, the hills were steep and covered with amazing meadows that rose almost straight up to the skies. It helped that it was a Friday, at around 2pm, and I was leaning back on a 600 year old rock staring at this beautiful view, thinking peaceful, meditative thoughts and NOT WORKING. Hah! Take that all you worker bees!
All in all, I was quite happy with the ride and was looking forward to the next part of the tour which was due to run ´til 5pm. I was off my horse (blessed event) and down at the main road when I was informed that I would need to wait two hours for the rest of my group to get back. What????? Apparently, they all were going to visit two more sites, to which I was not invited because I didn´t have the tourist pass. Ack!!! I could wish that this had been made clear to me before I was culled from the group and taken on my own personalized trip. I could have bought the stupid ticket for $25 rather than sit around waiting for my ride back to Cusco. So, I did what any person would do and made an unpaid-for trip to Sacsayhuaman (they really should guard the gate better), and then took a cab back to the Plaza de Armas.
Just a note for those of you considering a horseback ride in the near future, Ow! My knees were stiff, I had bruises on my legs from the stirrup leathers, and sitting was a little uncomfortable for the rest of the day. However, racing down a rocky hill on an out of control horse and no pommel to grab was definitely an adventure. Thank you, Eric´s Adventures!!!
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