The most perfect day.

We had started the day early and were very productive. We had checked out of our hostel, bought bus tickets to Arequipa and had a private tour of the Sacred Valley in the works. A friend had recommended a private driver who would take us to the rings of Moray, the salinas, and a textile factory all for a very reasonable price. We had already been in contact with the driver and were told to call him once we had our bus tickets and were ready for our pickup. Unfortunately we were unable to reach him when it came time for the pickup. We tried several times but to no avail. We were out of luck, sitting at the bus terminal, and not sure how to occupy the next 10 hours so we figured a good start was food.  We mozied our way over to one of the sangucherias and killed about 5 minutes with a chicken sandwich. It was delicious but didn’t quite fill the void of the failed valley tour. 

We were on our way out of the bus terminal when, per usual, we were stopped by a taxi driver offering his services. We figured he’d probably want an arm and a leg for a private tour of the Sacred Valley but Brent went for it. Surprisingly enough, he wanted less than the driver we had previously contacted and was willing to take us to all of the same places plus a few more. This was our splendid introduction to Elvis, our driver and good friend for the next 6 hours.

Things were off the a great start. We were shown into Elvis’s nice cab – a newer model which was very clean and equipped with seat belts.  Things you are definitely not guaranteed when picking a driver at random from outside the terminal. Once inside and buckled up, Elvis flipped on the radio and out came Shania Twain’s “Feel like a woman” followed by some Blind Melon and “No Rain.” Things were off to a really great start.

The hits kept coming as we rode our way into some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve seen in my 8 months in South America. Lush patchwork fields in all shades of green and yellow spread out over rolling hills. See below – it was breathtaking. Also, as Shannon Hoon had predicted, there was No Rain!

Elvis was kind enough to make several photo stops on the way to our first official stop, the Salinas de Maras. These are pre-incan salt evaporation ponds that are still in use to harvest salt. Really cool stuff. They were really beautiful and the size and number of ponds was really impressive.

After our visit to the salt factory we headed for the Rings of Moray. The scenery kept getting better as did the music. We were now listening to Walk of Life by Dire Straits and cruising with the windows down. When we got into the Moray park, we bought Elvis a cold Coke and headed for the Incan ruins. We wandered around for about half an hour admiring the terracing.

There was one more set of ruins Elvis had on our list but we didn’t have to S/.75 tourist pass to enter the park so instead of skipping them, we scooped up a little local boy who gave us directions up to a look-out next to the textile factory.  We dropped him off, Elvis tipped him for his services, and pulled up to even more awesome stuff! I have to admit that seeing the ruins from this vantage point was much better than being inside the ruins, themselves. After more photos, and admiring we headed up to the textile factory for a demonstration of how they produce and dye their yarns and a little bit about their weaving process. As a thank you for their time, we bought some scarves as souvenirs and were on our way again. But wait – as a thank you for buying the scarves the women dressed us up in  their indigenous duds for photos and sang us a farewell tune.

This was supposed to be our final stop, but we weren’t quite ready to leave Elvis so we made one more at a small restaurant on the way home to have a few drinks and chicharrones and to say thank you for our best day yet in Peru.

If you are interested in booking a tour with Elvis click here.