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Published: April 12th 2011
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The next leg of the journey takes us from Cusco to Pisac, stop off point for the Inca Trail. We don't just go straight there of course but make a few stops along the way to see some of the Incan sites in the sacred valley.
The first is a water temple where the water is still running through the huge interlocked blocks of stone that the amazing Incan stone masons managed to fit so snuggly together using no mortar. Further on we climb up these huge ancient terraces at a fortified site. The terraces are huge, each at least 12 foot high. Unfortunately Max is in overdrive, spouting off at great length about the history of the site. Some of us find it more interesting than others. I have a great photo of one of our group looking sooo enthralled! Will upload when I get back.
At the final site we visit at Pisac we climb step after step until finally we emerge at the summit where massive stones still remain, making up the sun temple worship site. Most of the huge stones were toppled to the bottom by the Spanish and some of the carvings on those
they couldn't shift ground down! But you can still see quite a lot of what would have been a very impressive monument. Considering the Incans had to get these huge stones from the opposite mountain where they were quarried, across two rivers and then roll them up to the top via a huge constructed ramp the Spaniards were pretty rubbish really not even being able to topple them! Hah!
As we carry on Max points out orange plastic bags tied to poles outside some of the houses. We never would have even noticed these, let alone found out what they were for with rubbish Dragoman and their non local tour guides (can you guess I wasn't that impressed with Dragoman!). Anyway the reason for the bags and the poles is to indicate that the house is brewing the local beer made from sprouted corn... I think its called chachia, but will check later! We stop at one of the houses and a lovely lady is busy scouping out yellow and pink frothy brew from some big cauldrens inside the smokey, dark room we are all huddled in. We get to sample both types. The yellow one is vile but
the pink one, flavoured with strawberries is delish! We then go outside in the gathering gloom to play the local game 'frog' that very drunken Peruvian locals play after supping the chichua. Bascially you have to try and throw metal gold discs into the frogs mouth and any other holes on the board. They drop through into the drawyer below and when you open it up you get to find out your score. The highest score gets another free drink!
After a long day we finally arrive at our hotel for the next two nights and our breather stop before the Inca Trail....or so I think....
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