Chocolate-It's What's for Dinner

While we were in the Sacred Valley (between Cusco and Ollantaytambo), we went to the Maras Salt Pans. I had never been to a salt mine before and wasn't sure it was going to be that interesting but it actually was.  First we drove up this twisty turny road which often times didn't think the van was going to make. Then the salt pans came into view. Yes all that white stuff are the "salt ponds"  The "salted" water comes from a natural spring which was not so impressive in size: But the amount of pools was definitely impressive: This is only looking in one direction High-Tech operation They dam up the water into pools and let the sun evaporate the water. Real high-tech stuff going on here. The top layer is used for eating (yum), the next layer for medicinal (meaning soaking in a hot tub of salted water), and the bottom layer is use for industrial purposes (yeah salt licks - I guess?). They work at night because during the day the brightness of ...

Imagine our surprise when we found Moe's in Peru. For a second there we thought we were in Springfield. (Maybe we spent too much time at Moe's and that's why this post is so late). I won't blather on about how wonderful Machu Picchu was or how wonderful the Amazon was (which they were), instead I'll blather on about how wonderful the food was. This is a food blog after all. All of the food was so fresh. There were many farms around and we assume most of the food was grown locally. We stayed at El Albergue Hotel in Ollantaytambo (the Sacred Valley). They had an organic farm and used the produce for their meals. They had this fabulous mint tea (Andean mint of course) and also Chamomile. Just some fresh leaves thrown into boiling water. It was some of the best tea I've ever had. We stayed at Machu Picchu at the Sanctuary Lodge (basically took a second mortgage on the house for this - but it was worth it. We got to see sunrise at Machu Picchu). The food ...