At the Sacred Valley of the Incas

Today we visited The sacred Valley of the Incas. The tour operator picked us up at 8:40am and after going around hundreds of hotels collecting enthusiastic bodies we were finally leaving Cusco at around 9am

We climbed up the same undulating road that took us to Tambomachay yesterday and after passing the highest point on the road our first stop was a small village called Corao, the bus took us to a handicraft market where travellers were able to use the restrooms, not without first snapping a shot with a small herd of Llamas.

Continuing the descend to the Sacred Valley the next (short) stop was at a lookout in Taray where we had some really good shots of the valley and the Urubamba river down below.

Once in Pisac, we went across town and via a winding road we ascended to the ruins of an agricultural complex, more impressive than the old buildings were the terraces built on the side of the hill. These were used to create micro climates to be able to grow different types of crops. Being a civil engineering I cannot stop admiring this defeat of engineering.

We spent close to an hour in Pisac before heading North to the town of Urubamba where a revitalising lunch awaited us. The road from Pisac to Urubamba was seeded with colourful towns where "chicha" (a corn based alcoholic beverage) was on the menu along with roasted Guinea Pig.....yummy

Our buffet lunch was tailored for "gringos", salads, chicken, pasta etc, etc. we missed an opportunity to try some local dishes.

After lunch another 30 minutes on the road we arrived in Ollantaytambo village, getting into town was slow as there is only one lane 2-way access road. After going through the main square and a bridge the bus dropped us at the impressive Ollantaytambo fortress.

This ruin posed a real challenge as it is required to climb around 250 steps to get to the top where there are some ceremonial altars. I struggled big time but eventually made it to the top, across the valley our tour guide showed us two faces that may have been carved on a hill (the angry and the Inca faces). We also visited a temple dedicated to water.

Leaving the ruin we spent some time in the handicraft market.

Our last stop of the day was Chincheros, unfortunately the rain started half way between Ollantaytambo and Chincheros so we couldn't visit the ruins, instead we stopped at a local workshop where we were shown how colourful textiles are prepared.

The trip from Chincheros back to Cusco went for around an hour due to heavy traffic and the intense rain.

Tomorrow we are going to Macchu Pichu, that got to be the highlight of our tripRead more