The Lone DeRanger: Ollantaytambo...pronounced Oivay-carumba

I don't know this to be true, but in my experience, if you are Peruvian it means you are part mountain goat! It is definitely NOT a slam! Yesterday, we were on the edge of a sheer cliff, using every last spidey trick we had, and 2 young girls carrying 70 lb packs bounced past us like they were levitating...CRAP! They were gone by the time I even thought WTF? And another thing, they have the weirdest dogs I've ever seen.

Is that a cross between a spaniel, and a St. Bernard? It's no wonder they have strange dogs cuz hardly anything is flat. We had to pay extra just to see this little flat area the dog was crapping in...can you believe it? Anyway, Ollantaytambo is a great little town nestled in the mountains, 10 miles (1.5 hours by train...very slow train) from Machu Picchu...it was so nice we stayed there for three days! These are the ruins we climbed...and had the perfect view of from our cozy hotel room...

Casstonto has formally changed her name to Dora the Explorer...I told her it was taken, and all she did was throw her feathers at me! Here she is...walking/hiking stick et al...

Here is Dora in front of the Temple of the Sun...pay attention to how perfectly those blocks...150 ton blocks quarried 50 miles away, fit together!

You couldn't get a fly's pubic hair in there!

Here's some other stuff...

Dora said we weren't high enough yet...which I COMPLETELY misinterpreted...she meant we had to hike another 10,000 ft up to see an Inca jail. I didn't see why we had to do that, I'd probably end up in one anyway. What Dora wants, Dora gets. So we hiked up to the jail...the walk up would have killed mere mortals, but TLD and Dora barely broke a sweat...well, maybe only Dora didn't break a sweat...TLD had to change clothes 4 times on the way up! Some jail I tell ya...

The jails I've been in held more than 4 people...not this one. They had these holes carved in the rock, and chained the prisoners up fully exposed to the sun until they died!

Those Incas were some badass dudes. The thing they don't tell you is, the prisoners were dead within 15 minutes of arrival just from the climb! I think this guy was one of the escapees...about 100ft above the jail.