Mostly recovered from the hike, Ken feeling better after a hit of illness and we were ready to play. When we first arrived to Cusco we saw an ad for horse rides and ruin adventures just outside of Cusco. We were kind of doubting the ruins would be anything of note but looked forward to the horses. As Ken has learned- I love horses. yes I was that girl. You know the one. She had horse posters all over her bedroom and dreamed of living on a ranch where her best friend would be a horse with whom she would have great adventure and probably one day have a movie made after their relationship. If not obvious that did not happen but I do love riding as often as I can.
When we pulled up the ranch the horses looked big and healthy (YAY!- we do not support animal cruelty for the sake of tourism). We waited for our guide, surely one of the many mature ranch hands roaming about. Nope. A young 14 year old boy introduced himself to ken and I (all in Spanish of course- seriously no one spoke english! good thing I have my man) and lead us to the horses. We jumped on as he explained where we could go. At first I assumed he was prepping us for someone else, but no. He jumped on and took off! I was so happy. This wasn't going to be the usual tourist sees the countryside by horse kinda trip, this was a 14 year old boy who liked speed and had no real clue about being a tour guide- PERFECT! Tears streaming down our faces from the laughter and wind in our faces we tried our best to keep up. He lead us to caverns, the original Inca trail, tunnels that connected empires to bolivia and a sacrificial temple with the blood drenched stone heart still red and very anatomically correct. Maybe a 14 year old inexperienced tour guide is exactly what ken and I need- less talk, more action.
