Into the Sacred Valley

Between Cusco and Machu Picchu, Paul and I decided to spend a couple days in the peace and quiet of the Sacred Valley, which is an amazing area with small towns surrounded by terraced mountains, waterfalls, markets and the occasional ruin. The Sacred Valley is also called the Urubamba Valley, which loosely translates to "place of the bugs or spiders". They renamed it the Sacred Valley because it sounded better for the tourists. Having said that, it really is a slice of heaven.


Originally during our planning for the Sacred Valley, we thought we would explore a bit during the day and spend the evenings at our lodging, but when we arrived we hardly left the place (except for a morning hike to a beautiful waterfall...more on that below), as it was such a wonderfully peaceful oasis.

The Green House B&B is owned by a British expat, named Bryan and his partner, Gabriel, who is Peruvian. They also have three awesome dogs that guard the house, check in on guests and snuggle by the fireplace at dinner time.


Bryan's story is an interesting one, and the work that he and Gabriel have done with the folks in town is admirable...but perhaps we'll save that for another posting. They have some classic stories about working with the local government, and amongst all the trials and tribulations they manage to build an outstanding TripAdvisor profile.

A morning hike to a waterfall led us through local neighborhoods, passing cows, pigs, local dogs, crossing small streams and rivers. After getting lost through some jungle bush we made it to a beautiful clearing with a great view of the falls.


Back to the pups! There are three, which Paul and I assigned our own names. Rascal is the oldest of the group, and is such a sweet soul. She is constantly gaurding the house, keeping the other pups in line and coming up to you for her obligatory pet (which occurs quite regularly throughout the day). I think I had a tough time saying goodbye to her.


The other two pups we creatively called Rusty and Blackie.

Location:Calca, Peru