Sacred Valley
On our day off we all decided to go to the Sacred Valley and check out some Inca sites. Sophie had already been there so she meet up with her volunteer friends instead.
It was a bigger valley than I thourght. Beautiful with small little towns.
Suri Alpaca
First stop was a farm to see Alpacas, Llamas and Vizcachas. Was abit touristy, but we could see the animals up close and feed them. They looked well kept and had a reasonable amount of space.
Funny looking things?
They remind me of the 'Push me Pull me' in Doctor Dolittle. :-)
Now there is enough for both of you
Actually you two are rather big and have big teeth am moving away
Here’s looking at you, kid
Funny Vizcachas
We then had a tour of locals spinning the wool, making the dyes and weaving.
Natural Dyes
The wool is dyed with natural dyes from plants and insects. The red colour dye is prepared from the dried bodies of the females of the cochineal beetle which lives on cactuses. Cecilia crushed a Cochineal beetle to show the colour of that it produces. Cochineal is also used for food colouring and in make-up.
Cochineal beetle
The white, blacky grey things are the the beetles.
Natural colours
The colours are all nice ones, the brightly coloured items are made from modern synthetic dyes.
Boiling the wool and dyes
Weaving
We all bought some gifts in the shop. Were really nicely made but expensive.
Chicha Moradavasa - corn drink
We the stopped to see how Chicha Moradavasa was made from corn. The corn is fermented overnight and turns to alcohol. There was a pen with Guinea Pigs for sale.
Guinea Pigs for dinner?
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