Blackout in Olllantaytambo

Olllantaytambo, Peru - The Power went out just after 6 p.m. here Tuesday, just as Meghan and I had finished our meals at a very divey looking restaurant in the town´s Plasa de Armaz. So, not being able to read, watch Peruvian television or generally see anything but shadows we went to sleep early. It had been a long day. We rented a cab earlier in the day and left Cusco (it´s also more traditionaly called Cuzco) for a drive through the sacred valley with our driver Juan Carlos. We spent four or five hours driving dusty roads and seeing ancient and other sites that I never saw on a half day bus tour during my first visit to Peru. We went to Salinas to see more than 5,000 terraced salt pans still in use after hundreds of years. We held our breath as we drove by the explosive factories that make the explosives used in the salt mines. We stopped at Moray, a remote, but amazing ancient site, where there are three huge terraced coloseum type structures. Each terrace level is said to have it´s own microclimate. It´s also rumored to have mystical powers. We also drove by an old house on a mountain that was the home of a real witch, according to Juan Carlos, but it didn´t look like she was home. Of course, all this took a back seat to the huge snow capped mountains seen along the way. Like everywhere else though, Juan Carlos said the ice is vanishing fast.