More Ollantaytambo

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More Ollantaytambo



Friday, October 26

It’s the beginning of the Ollan anniversary weekend, an annual spring extravaganza that brings just about everyone in town and surrounding villages out to celebrate. The fiesta culminates with big days Sunday and Monday, but Friday night was a good start.

Bleachers were set up on one side of the plaza, a stage and a runway platform in the center. After some impressive fireworks after dusk, the revelries began with what I think is a variation on a “Miss Ollantaytambo” pageant. No swimsuits, at least while I was there, but great colorful traditional costumes, a probing interview question or two from the MC, and then the main event—singing, chanting, or reciting poetry in Quechua language center stage. (photo)

The crowds responded to the intrepid contestants (young women about 15-18 yrs of age) with hearty applause. I didn’t last long enough to see who took home the crown, but I’m certain the winner was most deserving.

Saturday a.m.

I started the day with a few more photos in the plaza, lots of locals in traditional costume waiting for a truck to take them to their settlements, maybe after a week of working elsewhere in the valley.

Then on to my favorite spot in the ruins. The princess’s bath--the one with the Andean trilogy terraces symbol carved into the stone. (photos)

Sunday

The first full day of Ollan anniversary celebrations. The dance competition began at noon…I got there early to get a font row seat to ensure that I’d be able to take photos of my Mosqoy students, who’d been working hard to prepare for this, their first entry in the competition. They did well, with a traditional number representing Carnival festivities. The photos show the Mosqoy men in brilliant green costumes, the women in red. (photos)

There were many other talented groups as well, some with quite a bit of experience and almost everyone with wonderfully colorful costumes representing regional tradition. Dancers came from as far away as Cusco to compete. (photos)


Nov 2
Rode back from Cusco to Ollantaytambo yesterday afternoon. As soon as I got home, about 3, there was a big family dinner...about 14 people for all saint's day. It's a holiday, everyone started cooking last night, a whole pig soaked in lime juice and chicha (the purple corn drink) then barbecued, after a great quinoa soup, with meat tamales and then sweet tamales for desert. REALLY good, and was fun to see all the family interaction.- You would have at least liked the soup and sweet tamales, though I'm not sure about when they put the (cooked) pig's head on Uncle Fernando's plate as a joke.

I took a nap (up since 4.30 a.m.)...it was a quiet evening, as we prepare for the next holiday--tomorrow. People visit cemeteries--family graves. I don't think there's another feast, but I can say not a lot of work is getting done.

Really cute little girl-3 y o Peruvian--in collective taxi from Cuzco-- told her mom she wanted to touch me. I told her about Jack, that he would like to meet her. Then, when she left, she put on her hat...Litchfield Montessori School. I wish I knew where that came from.

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My Ollantaytambo daily routine is very comfortable. I have Sunday and Monday free, so do a long hike on one of those days. Several great hikes that take most of the day (for me) start right from town, so I just walk out the door. Others start from elsewhere in the Sacred Valley, a fairly short bus or taxi ride away.

On the other weekend day, I read at an outdoor café, work on photos and writing, etc. Part of the time I read local history in guidebooks, English language books at Adela and Adolfo’s, my English translation of Garcilaso de la Vega’s Royal Histories of the Incas from the 1500’s. The rest of the time, I read fiction --Graham Greene’s Travels with my Aunt, Ken Follet’s Third Twin, and Kate Wheeler’s When Mountains Walked, set in Peru.

Editing photos and trying to conserves my rapidly diminishing laptop hard drive storage is a time consuming challenges as well. On Thurs and Friday afternoon’s I teach the English class to the Mosqoy candidate high-schoolers, so I save some energy for that. The space I use is in a very nice salon/dining room in the old building ( a colonial casona) that houses the CATTCO museum. Lunch at Adolfo and Adela’s is 2.30 or 3, before class, and after class I read and go to the local slow internet place. About once a week I’ll travel to larger Urubamba, 20 minutes by bus from Ollan to use their fast internet and a nice café I like.

Mosqoy--the Ollantaytambo NGO I work with (contatced thru CATTCO)

Mosqoy detals—

Started by Ashley Akins, a young woman in her 20’s from Langley, BC Canada, while she was living in Ollnataytambo.

Mosqoy: Quechua word for ‘dream.’

From their website: www.Mosqoy.com

"We are a charitable organization working to bridge cross-cultural gaps between North America and Peru. We aim to realize the dreams of Peruvian students and textile workers through our two projects, Proyecto Colibri and Banco de Jovenes.

Our goals:
To educate through Youth Bank for the Future, a project aiming to provide post-secondary education for twenty graduating students in Ollantaytambo, in hopes of establishing a stronger base of professionals in future generations.
To preserve through Proyecto Colibri: Strands for Sustainability, working with textiles communities to keep their art and culture alive.
To connect generations, and the elders and youth of the Andes, spread awareness between the cultures and languages of North America and Peru, and bridge the gap in the commodity chain between producer and consumer.


Youth Bank for the Future
The children of Ollantaytambo and the Patakancha Valley (in the Sacred Valley region of Peru) have no means of turning their future dreams into reality after they graduate from high school. On average, only two or three students out of the 70 that graduate each year from Colegio Estatal Mixto Ollantay (the only high school in the town) will continue their studies at a technical institute or university. The rest will follow their family jobs either working in the markets or on the farms, uneducated and without an income to support a family of their own. Every generation of children becomes poorer, and the number of professionals in the community is decreasing rapidly, representing only 5% of the district’s population."

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More Ollantaytambo hiking

The Inca trails

1. Machu Picchu is by far the best known of the trails leaving from near Ollan, and the main trail, a four day trip, is booked 9 months out, as of now. Licensed outfitters are required for use of the trail, I believe, and costs for this trip significant. (My Machu Picchu comments are abbreviated, because I have promised my very patient and indulgent wife that I would wait to do that trip with her in the future.)

I have heard from several sources, including local users, that SAS is a very reliable and full-service group. One comment from a Calgary couple in their 50’s who appeared very fit is worth passing along:

The four day trip delivers most hikers to Machu Picchu in a very weary state, and most often, I gather, early in the morning after leaving the final camp outside the park. The Canadians’ comment was that they would have better been able to explore and appreciate the site had they been able to rest up a day in a nearby hotel (for all but the wealthy, in Aguas Calientes, sometimes referred to as Machu Picchu pueblo. This would have enabled them to get to the site at dawn, well-rested and ready to energetically explore. They said the two-day SAS trail trip operates in this way. Others likely do as well.

2. Chilca circuit up the Silque valley and back around via the Urubamba Valley—said to be 5 or 6 days. Chilca in just a few KM down the road from Ollantaytambo.

3. Choquequirao—A spectacular Inca site and ruins 6000 feet above the Apurimac River, reached from the Sacred Valley (access actually closer to Cusco than Ollan, but it sounds so good I had to include it. This is a tough two-day each way hike, with an additional day or two recommended for exploration at the site. It’s made tougher by beginning with a full day descent into a hot canyon—the next day is required to climb back up to Choque. Much less visited than MP because of access issues, at least for now.

More day hikes from Ollan—

1. Cachiccata--The canterras, or rock quarries used by the Incas for construction of Ollantaytambo, lie far above the river. The workers cut the stones at a series of natural boulder rockfalls, rolled them down the mountain, then across the river and up a ramp to the temple. The quarries are worth a visit as much for the views from the trail and site as for the site itself.

The trip from Ollan is generally estimated at two -three hours each way. I hiked it with Adolfo and his teenaged son Javier, both very fit and veterans of the route. With my slow pace and dozens of photos, it took much longer…close to 7 hours including a long lunch stop at the highest quarry, about 2800 feet above Ollantaytambo.



The most common route for the hike begins near the Ollantaytambo lodge, walks east for a bit, then follows the path down to the Inca bridge across the Urubamba. In November, cactus are just beginning to flower, and there are a series of beautiful blooms scattered along the trail—vivid reds, yellows, and variations on these. (photos)

The trail ascends at a moderate grade for most of the route up from the river, than more steeply within 45 minutes of the final quarry, the highest and most recently used of the three. Excellent vistas lie all along the route, including:

• Veronica and its glaciated summit in its entirety, if you are fortunate enough to have a clear day (only the northern portion of the peak is usually visible from near town.). (photo)

• A long green stretch of the Sacred valley running east and west from Ollantaytambo, as well as the entire town site and the Patacancha valley running south toward Pumamarca; (photo)

• The long climb up another valley running southwest to the Malaga pass, the rainforest, and Malaga’s access to the summit climb for Veronica. (photo)

The valley floor accessed on the descent route that more or less follows the fall line for the boulders and an irrigation canal shelters a small village, formerly the hacienda of the Sotas, Adolfo’s grandfather. (The hacienda was broken up into small subsistence farms in the land reforms of the late 1960’s early 1970’a.). Because of a lack of capital investment and perhaps other reasons, the land here is no longer as productive as it was. The main hacienda still stands, though in bad disrepair. (photo)

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Photos

Canterra trail
Adolfo, Javier, Veronica

Javier and old abandoned colonial millstone
At upper quarry

Adolfo at on Inca work-in-progress
At upper quarry