machu picchu – day3
click to read the machu picchu posts

3,000 feet down – part two

Halfway down and we reach a flat area and we all took pictures with the snow-capped mountain in the background.

Frank brought the hat with him; I quickly discovered that my ball-cap didn’t keep the equatorial sun off my nose or ears, so I had to buy a hat with a brim. (It will not come back to Pittsburgh.)

What I really wanted was a stovetop hat like the locals wear, but I was told that those are not sold at the tourist markets. Apparently, each town or district still has its own hat-maker and he makes the unique hats for the people of his community. The unique hats designate what section, of the area, a person is from. (I didn’t need it to have a flower.)

The other discovery was that winter in equatorial Peru is a misnomer. It is cold after the sun goes down and in the morning for a couple of hours, but for most of the day the weather is mild. I should have brought lighter pants and more T-shirts.