Donations, Ruins, and the Market

This past weekend I finally traveled outside of the city and went to see some ruins and the famous market. Before my weekend trips, I went on Friday with the accountant at the clinic, Edgar, to buy supplies using the money I collected for donations. We were able to buy quite a lot and I spent almost 1000 soles, about $360 CAD. It was such a large amount to be donated that he was actually racking his brains trying to come up with more things to buy.

We bought:

• 302 diapers
• 2 large bottles of shampoo
• 3 locks
• 50 kgs of rice
• 15 kgs of macarroni
• 10 kgs of semola (wheat-type flour for soup)
• 20 packages of mazamorra morado (powder used to make purple corn jello)
• 12 packages of flan powder

I still have close to $1000 CAD left in donation money so I approached the staff and Maximo Nivel about possibly buying supplies for some of the orphanages or schools and they told me that they will see if there is the possibility of sending someone else out with me to buy more things sometime this week. I think that whatever money I am left with in the end I will donate to the humanitarian fund that Maximo has set up for some of their projects.

On Saturday I started off my day with a "nice" cold shower and then after lunch Thomas, Neja, Ashleigh, Vanessa and I went to see the ruins at Moray and the salt mines nearby. In order to get there we had to take a bus which was jam-packed full of people. Not only did they sell tickets for the seats, but they also sold tickets for the standing room in the aisle. Even though we had to wait for 40 minutes through three buses I think it was worth it because the bus ride was an hour long and I don't think I could have handled standing the whole time and holding onto my things as well as keeping my balance during all of the winding turns.

Once we got to Maras we hired a taxi driver on the side of the road to take us first to the ruins and then the salt mines. The ruins at Moray consist of a series of circles that were built at different levels by the Inca for agricultural purposes. Between each level there are stone steps attached to the wall and you have to climb down about 15-20 levels to get to the bottom. It was quite an impressive view but I think I was more in awe of the salt mines. They consist of a series of small pools which the Inca would fill with salt water from the surrounding streams and then collect the salt once the water evaporated. I dipped my finger in the stream and was surprised by the warmth of the water considering how high up in the mountains we were. I also licked my finger afterward and it was extremely salty!

Then on Sunday we headed out to the famous market at Pisac including everyone from the day before as well as some others in the house. Once again we had to take the bus to get there but we made sure that we had seats. We walked around the market for a bit and then went to a cafe and had lunch. I wish we had spent more time in the market, although I did buy some things, but most likely I will be returning on Thursday when I go on the Sacred Valley tour. Once we were ready to go home we couldn't find a taxi and we didn't want to have to stand in a bus however we ended up waiting for an hour and a half for an available van. It was ironic considering that we the entire time we spent standing in line waiting for a ride we could have spent standing on the bus already on our way home.