One of the great pleasures of our trip to Peru was trying on (and even purchasing) a wide variety of hats. Keep in mind that temperatures ranged from ~35F to ~85F, which meant both winter and summer hats were appropriate.
Here’s Mike, modelling his baseball cap in the ruins of Olllantaytambo. He brought it along with him, so it doesn’t count as a Peruvian hat, but I still thought I should include it.
Aha! It’s that stereotypical photo of Machu Picchu, with me and Pamela Photoshopped in. No, really, we were there. I have on my ubiquitous white floppy beach hat and Pamela is wearing her darling orange hat that she got at the market in Pisac. That hat made it very easy to spot her, as we wandered around MP and other ruins. In fact, many of my photos have a dot of orange in them, and I can say “look, there is Pamela!”
This one below is a little harder to see.
I like to think of it as “Steph, meet llama. Llama, meet Steph.” But it is also noteworthy for the view of Steph’s wide brimmed hat, which was very effective in keeping the sun off her face. Another Pisac market purchase!
And here’s the final Pisac hat purchase: Mike in “caballero” mode, making him even easier to spot at a distance. And another view of Pamela’s orange hat. We were sitting on the Temple of the Sun in MP, resting from all our hiking. I’m sure I was saying something amusing to make them laugh.
Speaking of laughter, here is a truly surreal picture of Steph and Mike on the train from Aguas Calientes to Cusco. Did they give us dinner on our 4 hour train ride? No, they gave us a fashion show instead, including a man dressed up as I’m not sure what (see the white face in the upper right hand corner – that’s him), who danced around the aisle. Steph is modelling his hat. Mike can’t quite believe what’s going on.
Ok, this photo is a bit out of sequence (it’s from Ollanta), but I thought it was time to show hats not worn by us. We were walking along the river, and both Steph and Pamela took pictures of women wearing traditional hats. If you look carefully, you can see Steph and her hat on the right hand side.
Steph took this picture at Moray (once again, I’m out of sequence). This was the day we tried to get to Pisac, and ended up touring the ruins at Moray and the salt pans of Salinas. This woman was selling textiles, including small coin purses. We didn’t resist.
And here we are in Cusco, with a woman wearing a different traditional hat. (I’m looking a bit dopey, b/c the baby llama was nuzzling me, and it was so adorable!)
Now for some winter hats! We managed to make it to Pisac a second time, near the end of the trip. Mike decided to buy his mom a reversible winter hat, and we convinced him to model it for us while we ate empanadas. I think the sunglasses are a nice touch, don’t you?
No, that’s not a hedgehog on my head! Pamela and I stopped in a llama-products store in Cusco and I simply HAD to try this on. You can see why.
I thought I’d end this little hat odyssey with a photo (thanks Steph!) of all of us at Machu Picchu. What a great trip! — Laurel, 8/7/06
