The Sacred Valley - Sapo in the valley

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We started the tour at 9am, going past Sacsayhuaman. Further along we passed another fortress (Puca Pucara - I think) which looked quite like an European medieval castle. Along the road there are many gum (eucalyptus) trees which have largely replaced the local species. These are popular because they grow quickly so make good fire wood and building material.

Our first stop was a village somewhat off the main road. The colourfully dressed ladies had set up craft stalls on the edge of the soccer field which was located in the middle of the village. The houses around the soccer field where all made out of mud bricks since this is the cheapest method of building in this region. When purchasing items from the ladies they where extremely grateful, and one even ran to her house to get change (I tried telling her to take her time but the language barrier meant she didn’t understand). The people in the village are mainly farmers but now make some extra money by selling their handicrafts to the tourists. Over generations they had forgotten how to weave when recently a government incentive paid for a few of them to be taught how to weave and these taught others in the village.

From the village we made our way back to the main road and then stopped at a fantastic lookout over looking the Sacred valley. Both sides where bounded by steep brown hills, while at the bottom the Urubamba river snaked its way across the valley, and farming fields flanked it on one side. Then we headed down the valley along the river, past the town of Pisac and up to the ruins above it.

We started off near a fortress, with farming terraces and water control systems near by. We continued on foot to the temple area. This contains some stunning stone work, the temple of the sun has a curved wall all made out of stone blocks all cut into square pieces and stacked without any mortar. The other buildings also had stunning stone work, with the walls sloping inwards to make them more resistant to earthquakes. It would have been nice to have more time to explore this area but we made our way back to the minibus.

As we drove towards Ollantaytambo the road was blocked by a carnival in one of the towns along the road! Unfortunately the tour guide didn’t want us to leave the bus, we got a glimpse at the carnival as we eventually made our way past. There where man dressed colourfully, wearing masks and dancing. We had lunch in Urubamba, it was an all you can eat buffet (quite good). An Andean band played for a short while and then where quite pushy in asking for tips and to have their CD purchased.

Next we stoped at a bar along the road. They showed us how Chicha the local drink is made out of fermented corn (not chewed as some guidebooks indicate). Inside was a table with different types of corn spread out across it , and in another room was a pen full of guinea pigs of all ages (these are eaten on special occasions). We finished by having a game of Sapo. This is played by throwing a small coin sized disk at a small table which has a frog in the middle with its mouth open, next to the frog are holes cut in the table. Depending on which hole (if any) the coin lands in that’s how you get points (inside the frog is the most points). The ladies lost the game against the guys but copped out of buying the guys a round of drinks.

In the afternoon we arrived in Ollantaytambo. We had a quick visit of the ruins, more impressive stone work. The rocky hill next to the town is very impressive. On our way back to the hotel a truck hit a wall and burst a tire as we where walking towards it. The actual town still has original Inca water channels along the streets and some of the houses are built within original Inca walls made out of stone. I bought some supplies for the Inca trail before going to an internet café which was slower than dial-up. Next to me where local kids playing Doom on the computers.

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Photos

The village
Locals setup a stall on the soccer field.

Pisac ruins - the temple of the sun
The curved building is the temple of the sun. The one made out of the smaller rocks may be the old temple of the sun.

Pisac ruins - walls
The walls where sloped inwards to make them more resistant to earthquakes. Also they where built on gravel so that they could move on the gravel during an earthquake.

Ollantaytambo - Inca streets
Ollantaytambo still has water channels which where built by the Incas.