Tuesday, January 2, 2018
For day two of exploring the Sacred Valley we decided to take a tour of the famous Incan ruins of Ollantaytambo and the town of Pisac. Our guide met us in our lobby and suggested that we visit the ruins first, as most of the tours were doing the opposite, and began in Pisac. He thought we would avoid some of the crowds this way. The drive to Ollantaytambo took about 40 minutes along the Urubamba River, brown from the sediment in the water from the rains. His advice was sound, and there were few tourists there when we arrived. Our guide had encyclopedic knowledge about Incan history and gave us an extensive lesson along the way. The ruins here are remarkable as they were a stronghold of one of the Incan kings made famous for resisting a Spanish attack by flooding the plains below the terraces. It’s easy to see how this place serves as a fortress as it was built high up on a hill, exhibiting another example of marvelous terraces expertly irrigated and engineered so well to withstand hundreds of years of earthquakes and erosion from the heavy rains each year.
In addition, we marveled at a temple built out of massive rocks, removed from a quarry 6 kilometers away. Also remarkable was that in between these massive boulders were smaller, narrow stones, precisely cut and designed to absorb any impact from earthquakes or other shifting of the ground.
It’s mind blowing to imagine how the transported these massive boulders, cut them so precisely, and then stacked them (with no mortar) where they still stand today nearly 600 years later. We enjoyed tromping about, ascending and descending steep irregular steps beside the terraces, each level offering new panoramas. Once we returned to the base, we enjoyed communing with and photographing the small herd of llamas peaceful grazing near the exit.
Dark clouds were looming and the sky had cooperated thus far, only spitting a few drops here and there as we piled into our van ready to head to our next destination. It was over an hour drive to Pisac, at the opposite end of the valley, so we enjoyed the scenery as the rain started to come down. We drove through multiple villages along the river glimpsing colorful scenes of daily life. Finally we arrived in Pisac where we were immediately greeted by two darling girls, probably aged 4 and 6, dressed in colorful, traditional clothing, each holding an adorable baby goat. They literally ran across the square making a beeline toward us, and promptly shoved a goat into Ewan’s arms. We took our obligatory photos as these shrewd and experienced young ladies smiled and chanted “cheese!” in unison, then held out their tiny hands to accept the coins I willingly dropped into them.
Our guide led us into a store off the main square where they demonstrated the jewelry making process and explained how to tell the difference between real and fake silver, as well as how to feel the difference between real alpaca and acrylic. We braved the rain and browsed the market stalls in the square, which overflowed down charming cobblestone alleyways. The stalls were covered with plastic tarps, but we did get a little wet. Customers were fairly scarce, probably due to the weather, so we definitely had to deflect some fierce sales pitches, though we couldn’t help but pick up a few trinkets. Even in the dismal weather with plastic tarps above and more sheets of plastic protecting their goods, it was a feast of color, and so easy to admire the artisanal handcrafted goods, the textiles so fetching and irresistible.
We had an hour to explore the market before meeting back up with our guide and retracing our route back down the valley toward our hotel. But first we stopped at a roadside stand to pick up a ear of “chocolo,” traditional Peruvian corn with giant kernels, served piping hot “con queso” (with cheese).
It was a delicious snack, perfect way to tide us over during the hour plus ride back to our hotel, where we arrived in plenty of time to make our spa appointments that we had booked. I know. It’s a rough life!
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