Sacred Valley Day Trip

South America » Peru » Cusco » Sacred Valley
June 19th 2007

Published: June 19th 2007

Edit Blog Post

Chris and Sarah

Llamas!

Up close and personal with everyone's favorite Andean cameloid.

We started out the day with breakfast again at the hotel, then gathered our things for our scheduled trip of The Sacred Valley. We were picked up in a minibus at our hotel at 8:30 AM and then rode down to the main part of town to get on a bus with some others. We also picked up our tour guide for the day, Puma. We drove in typical Peruvian suicidal fashion up to the ruins of Sacsayhuaman where the bus stopped unexpectedly and both the driver and tour guide got out. In retrospect, they seemed upset but they gave no explanations. After about fifteen minutes, they got back on and Puma explained in very general, non-confessional terms that they had been avoiding paying the tourism taxes and apparently it had caught up to them. Although we can't be sure, we are fairly certain bribes were involved.

With our newly--purchased police blessing, we continued on and stopped at several overlooks to take pictures. Of course, Peru is like a theme park in regard to pictures - you are expected to pay to get one with the characters. And trust me, the little kids know how to stick out their

Peruvian kids

Cute, huh? Until they charge you several soles afterwards. Don't be surprised; they are astute businesswomen.

hands to grab your heart- and purse-strings. We eventually wound our way down to Pisac which has a bustling street market. Our guide Puma informed us that Peru has over 4000 types of potato, many of which were at the market - along with the skinned whole carcases of several species of animals. We made two native purchases: an alpaca wool hat for Chris and camera batteries for Sarah. We also tried the local delicacy of boiled corn on the cob with a hunk of cheese. It was really good, plus Puma told us afterward that we could throw the cob "in the nature" to fertilize the soil.

Next we drove to Yucay for an included lunch at a beautiful monastery that is now a hotel. It was an all-you-can-eat buffet of local treats, and as usual they probably lost money on Chris's appetite. Our bellies full, we drove on to the ruins at Ollantaytambo. These ruins were origianlly a shrine constructed to look like a llama. Of course, this would be a llama that was 1/3 mile long and several hundred feet high. Hiking up the intricate stone terraces, Puma reminded us to breathe through the nose because

Pisac market

This lady was selling dyes for the local wool.

it is closer to the brain than the mouth and therefore provides it more oxygen.

Leaving this amazing place, we headed towards more ruins at Chinchero. It had more amazing terraces and a gorgeous Catholic church built on the foundations of the Inca shrine. We also purchased a bag of coca leaves to chew on the Inca Trail and a bag of something akin to Peruvian kettle corn. On the way back to Cusco, we thought we picked up a hitchhiker but he immediately pulled out a laptop and tried to sell us DVD's about Peru. We viewed it as a kind of in-flight movie. We finally made it back to Cusco around 6:15 and got a pizza. Chris also tried the local Inca Kola, which looks like urine and tates like a cross between bubble gum and those wax soda bottle candy drinks. Next was a quick stop by Peru Treks to get Sarah's duffle bag for the trip, followed by a semi-successful attempt at getting small bills for the trek. We got back to the hotel, packed for the trail (with much deliberation), and hit the hay for our 4 AM wakeup call.

Additional photos below

Photos: 28, Displayed: 24