The last full day in Cusco was indeed filled with new places to visit and new things to learn. The day started early with breakfast at 6:30 am and the tour company picking me up at 7:45 am. After stopping at two more hotels to pick up four other tourists, we were on our way to the sacred valley. Today's tourist group was all Americans, a honneymoon couple from Arkansas and a mother and daughter from Colorado. From Cusco we ascended to a high altitude of 13,000 ft before we started our descent to the valley. There were so many little towns on our way with mixed construction style, old using just clay and new using brick and mortar! We also passed several archeological sites on our way, and the guide each time told us what they were. Off course we couldn't stop and see all of them, we would need a lot more than one day for that!! The scenery was just breath taking all along the way, so it was not a boring drive at all. Our first stop was an artisanal place where women from different areas in the valley were weaving stuff, but before arriving at the weaving point, we went through a petting zoo where we saw vicunas, alpacas and llamas. Vicunas live in the wild and their numbers are dwindling, whereas llamas and alpacas are farm animals. We were told that the best wool comes from baby alpacas. We fed the animals and also took pictures while doing so. The weaving station was last and very interesting! Women were dressed up differently to represent their local community and also their marital status. The skin color was also different based on where they came from. Lastly, there was a shop where one can buy stuff and we were told that the proceeds go directly to helping the communities where the women came from so be generous and buy something!!! Next stop after this was the market place of Pisac, here Inca Indians from around the valley come to sell their goods and buy what they need. Some transactions do not involve money, as they just exchange goods!! The old fashion way!! We were given one hour to visit the whole place and buy what we wanted. After this stop, we were off to our main destination which was the Ollantaytambo archeological site. That was impressive!! The stone work just amazed me once more! There was the sun temple at the top of the site, we needed to climb 250 steep steps to get there, again I said!! But it was worth it as the view was great. You could see Inca storage houses on an opposite hill, where goods were stored for times of need. There were two sun gates at the top, the sun will enter from each gate at a different solar solstice!!
No doubt that the sacred valley will remain vividly in my memory for years to come, not only got the beauty of nature but for all the amazing Inca work present everywhere. Ollantaytambo is the epicenter of it all with its temple of the sun, storage houses, and two sun gates that show the mastery of the sun cycle by the Inca; the sun enters from one window during the summer solstice and from the other during the winter solstice. While driving through small villages in the sacred valley, our guide pointed out the lack on any written signs on store fronts, instead what you have is a long stick at the end of which you have a plastic bag! The color of the plastic bag tells people what is being sold in the store, for example red bags mean Chicha (beer) is sold there (a modern day bar of sorts). These signs are still used today. In any case, the Incas came up with ingenious ways to solve problems in their society that shows the level of sophistication of the Incas!
Riding in the sacred valley surrounded with the touring Andes mountains
Pisac Indian market
Pisac Indian market
Above a small town in the sacred valley of the Incas
A small Indian boy helping his mother weave
An Indian lady showing us how they get the different colors of the wool
Feeding an Alpaca
Feeding a llama
Feeding a hybrid Alpaca-llama
A landscape where the Incas used to farm and some still do
Some unique trees of the Andes
The archeological site of Ollantaytambo
Stone work of the Inca: no mortar no clay and cannot even slide a credit card between stones that is how well they carved and fit the stones!!!! This fit is believed to have saved Machu Picchu and other sites from being destroyed by he many earthquakes that hit Peru in the past. The stones just vibrate then fall back into place during an earthquake, thus the name "dancing stone"!!
One of the sun gates at the temple of the sun
Looking down from the temple of the sun on the archeological site. In the distance, once can see storage houses on the side of the mountain.
Looking up at the temple of the sun and the 250 steps leading up to it!!!
small canals were used to take fresh water from the top of the mountains to the valley
Urubamba river cutting through the sacred valley
