So when I said we were resting last night I apparently meant I was waiting until happy hour to drink a lot of Cusqueno beers and then spend hours dancing with a few people we met to a pretty good cover band. So this morning when we woke up to go mountain biking I had a pretty sweet hangover, but I got over it pretty fast since the Andes are BEAUTIFUL. I had one of those moments where you kind of mentally stop and  just try to take it all in and realize that you are actually where you are doing what you're doing. We biked first to some ruins where the Incas built these farming terraces in natural hole-shaped places in the earth, so the terraces are in circles descending down into the hole. Each level of circle-terrace is about 10 degrees hotter as you go down, so that they could acclimate plants from the jungles in Northern Peru to be grown in the colder highland regions. Brilliant Incas!

We also visited a salt mines, that are actually Pre-Inca, and have this really cool system of controlling the salty water to flow into these pools where the salt crystalizes and then is collected. It was a good reminder of how much work goes in to everything we have. Even table salt that I dont even think about using requires all of this pretty strenuous labor. I know, blah blah, Ive gone to Peru and had a revelation about economic exploitation, but I actually have. Its one thing to hear and know about, but its been such a different experience for me to actually see it. Ive been feeling really spoiled lately and I think Ive decided that Im no longer ok with just appreciating my priviledge and being grateful for it, I think that is not enough.