Day 4: Who's Your Pachamama?

Itinerary: At large in The Sacred Valley

The Brazilians were back.  

Today's adventure was to take us outside of Cusco for a full day's tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, so named for the river - the Sacred River.  We booked it with the same tour operators as yesterday so I guess it was inevitable that we would run into some of the same people that we met before - we were just hoping that the vacuous headed and challenged would not be among them.  Alas, it was not to be.  There a LOT of people on this tour, far more than the 10-15 the lady in the tour office promised the max would be - but c'est la vie - unless we'd wanted to stump up for a private tour (which would mean less money for alpaca-related purchases, so, um, no) this was the only option.

Why, hello there.

But it soon became apparent that our tour guide and tour bus driver were cut from a different cloth than the lovely but slightly ineffectual chap from yesterday.  They were bad-ass.  The bus driver was brilliant - handling this big tour bus like it was a 2 seater convertible, blasting everyone with his horn to get out of the way, not giving any quarter to anyone and generally not taking any shit.  I'm sure his true spiritual home is in Manhattan as a yellow cab driver but he was fantastic.  He reminded me of my driver in Bhutan - when they drive through these narrow gaps without slowing down in the least because they understand the width of their vehicle to within a half inch (all while you are squeaking with alarm in the back).  Eventually you relax because you know you are in very safe hands and from then on in, all is good.  I think my love for him was complete when, as we were ready to leave Pisac and - guess who! - was late, he actually closed the doors and started to drive away, finally prompting the insouciant Brazilian to get an effing move on and have to make a run for it.  Bloody marvelous.

Our tour guide was equally as in command in his own way as his sidekick driver.  He had a walking stick that he would wave in front of him to corral his tourist herd (we numbered about 30 by the time all the feeder buses had dropped their pick-ups off) and call out "hooka hook" (not sure about spelling) which is the Peruvian equivalent of HURRY THE HELL UP!  He did a much better job of keeping the whole group together ("Powerstick group - over here! We go together!") and on time (with one or two exceptions - one being Lisa and myself as the last ones out of the silver factory!).  I think my love for him was sealed when, about 10 mins into our tour of Pisac, one of the women in our group, approaches him and says "I need to go back to the bus - my husband is cold and needs a sweater".   Our guide looks the guy up and down and says "he'll be fine - its sunny, go stand in the sunshine" and then carries on with the tour.  Brilliant.  Total non-pandering (in case any of you are worried about him, it was in the 70's so it was not, by any definition of the word, cold).

So, enough pre-amble - what was our itinerary for the day?  Well, we were heading out about 50km or so from Cusco and descending to 2,000m into the Sacred Valley.  The drive was incredible with beautifully scenic views across and into the valley, surrounded by the imposing Andean mountains.

Our first stop was (as is the way with all organized tours) at an "authentic" market where we could shop for more souvenirs and where I indulged further my newly burgeoning alpaca (or is it llama?) passion.  Conveniently forgetting yesterday's appetizer at the restaurant, I jumped at the opportunity to have my picture taken with probably the world's best trained Alpaca Picture Poser - it was hilarious!  The alpaca would know exactly where the camera was and look directly at it or, on command, snap his ears up to attention or, as in my case, pretend to give me a big smoochy alpaca kiss.  It was really very impressive.  Of course I had to give his handler a dollar (or a couple soles) for the privilege, but it was worth it!  Both Lisa and I found some great gifts as well, so it was a fun first stop for our Grand Day Out.

The look of love

Going in to seal the deal

En route to Pisac, the stunning Sacred Valley of the Incas

After bidding a tearful goodbye to my new friend, it was back on the bus for a half hour drive to our first ruins of the day, the stunning site of Pisac.  The ruins of Pisac are located high above the town and contain incredible Inca terraces, housing areas and a red andesitic temple.  The Lonely Planet describes Pisac thus:

Pisac village way down in the valley below

 "The hilltop Inca citadel lies high above the village on a triangular plateau with a plunging gorge on each side. The most impressive feature is the agricultural terracing which sweeps around the south and east flanks of the mountain in huge and graceful curves, almost entirely unbroken by steps (which require greater maintenance and promote erosion).  Instead, the terracing is joined by diagonal flights of stairs made of flagstones set into the terrace walls.  Above the terraces are cliff-hanging footpaths, watched over by caracara falcons and well defended by massive stone doorways, steep stairs and a short tunnel carved out of the rock.  Looking across the Kitamayo Gorge from the back of the site, you'll see hundreds of holes honeycombing the cliff wall.  These are Inca tombs that were plundered by huaqueros (grave robbers) and are now completely off limits to tourists".

The beautiful terraces of Pisac

I think this site was, by far, the most impressive we'd seen so far - I think mainly because you could visualize so clearly what it looked like when it was still in use.  Apparently, once restoration is complete in a couple of years, then they will start planting again in the terraces - I think that is very cool indeed.  Other tidbits we learned from our guide during this part of the tour - in the Inca tombs, people are buried in the foetal position, so as to prepare them for their birth into their next life.  Its not the same belief as re-incarnation (same spirit, new body) but instead its a complete new birth into a new life, so the burial practice was performed to help the person on their way.  

The holes in the cliff are hundreds of Inca tombs

Also, the site of Pisac was built in the shape of a condor, one of the three holy animals of the Incas (they are the condor, the puma and the snake).  It was a little difficult to see at ground level, but i guess if you went up high enough you'd see it.  

View looking out from the "body" of the condor onto the "head"

Arty shot

Interesting factoid, blog watchers: The holes on either side
are what the Incans used to wedge sticks with fringing on
them, thus making a door.  Probably not recommended in your
rental, but useful to know.

Anyway, after about an hour of exploring the ruins, it was time to head back down to the bus and on towards our main stop of the day, the runs of Ollantaytambo.  En route we stopped at (yet another) factory - this time a silver factory and yes, I did succumb and buy a couple of bits and bobs.  All in the name of helping the local economy, you know.  Then there was a ridiculously long and involved process where we spent a good hour or so dropping various little clusters of people off at various lunch stops.  I guess each tour operator has an arrangement with a different restaurant and, even though we were all pooled together on the same bus, we were all parceled off to different places. By the fifth drop-off, it was getting rather old (and i was absolutely starving) but then we were next so were dropped off at this perfectly adequate place where the food was actually pretty decent, and the surrounding gardens were beautiful.  So many flowers in crazily enthusiastic bloom!

Pisco Sour Part 2 - vacation lunchtime drinking.
Just the one, mind. 

Dessert!!  Fried bread product!
Definitely more than one.

Beautiful flowers in the restaurant's Area Verde.
Not to be confused with Salsa Verde.

After lunch, we were picked up around 2.30pm and continued the drive to Ollantaytambo.  This was the highlight of the day and here's what our tour itinerary blurb said about it: 

The approach to Ollantaytambo.  As brilliant
architects, designers and engineers as they were, I
guess the Incans didnt predict tourist buses

Ollantaytambo is one of the most beautiful, and significant, sites in the entire Cusco region and is rich with history.  At a distance of 47 miles from Cusco, it is a very interesting and typical pueblo with extensive and well-preserved Inca ruins.  We will visit the unfinished temples high above the villages on the mountainside.  It is one of the most impressive Imperial style complexes built by the Incas and is most important because, with the assistance of the Callaguaya and other nations of the Lake Titicaca region, was the stationing point for the "grassroots" attempts to challenge the power of the Pachacutec.

OK - it was pretty damned impressive.  Coming in through the entry gates, you looked up at the immense structure before you and said "wow".

The next thing you said (albeit in your inside voice) was "shit.  I have to climb up all those steps".

And so it was.  Our visit to Ollantaytambo was an interesting mix of "oooh - this is nice" with "OMG - my heart is about to explode".

I think the training for the hiking portion of this trip is going very well.

Yes.  I took his picture too - and gave him a dollar.
I am the consummate tourist.
I'm also presuming his get-up is at least mildly authentic
and not just purchased from Party City Peru

From the bottom, looking up

From the top, looking across.  The structure you can see halfway
up the mountain is the granary.

The extremely important Sun temple whose ginormous
rocks were rolled across from a quarry several mountains
away.  Very impressive construction - but a little
underwhelming in the aesthetics department.  Sorry.

Catching a breather at the top, hanging out at the sun temple

Proof that I survived the trip back down