Moray... Eels?

After a slow morning we headed out of Cusco and into the Sacred Valley. Our 70 soles ticket (about 20 bucks) got us access to 4 sites in the north of the valley and we were determined to get our money's worth.

First up was Pisac, a huge fortified site set on top of a hill, as they mostly are. It was a sprawling place that took us over 2 hours to explore and we could have spent twice that. From there we drove down the valley up and up the other side to the next spot, Moray where we camped for the night in their deserted car park with incredible views over grasslands and snow capped peaks beyond.

When you sleep in remote and high altitude places like this you tend to go to bed early and get up with the sun rise. Moray didn't take long to walk around but the strange sunken terraces was unlike anything we'd seen before and reminded me of roman gladiator arenas. It wasn't far to Maras, a salt farm with a hodge-podge of saline pools stretching down the valley side.

It was then on to Chinchero our 3rd stop of the day and it wasn't even lunch time yet! This site was huge with a massive amount of large terraces. Sitting atop of all this great Incan stonework was a Catholic church that looked very out of place.

Next, and last, up was Ollaytaytambo This site was different again, set in a tight bit of the valley with high terraces constrained by stone walls. Atop of this was the Sun Temple, constructed with some massive blocks of stone that must have weighed many, many tonnes and had been transported from over 7 kms away. Unfortunately the Spaniards had turned up before this place had been finished so they hastily tried to fortify it, but throwing stones, spears and fighting with staffs wasn't any competition to the Spanish muskets.

It was a really great few days jammed with so many impressive and varied sights, particularly enjoyable considering we nearly skipped it to continue heading south.Read more