The Sacred Valley
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
72
90
Trip End
Jan 06, 2009
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Pisac,
Sacred Valley,
Peru
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Our final tour in Cuzco was The Sacred Valley tour. As usual, we got collected at some ungodly hour by minibus. It was small and only about 20 of us which was a nice little tour group.
Our first stop was to Pisac Market. This was a large square crammed with market stalls selling every kind of souvenir, item of clothing, genre of music, snacks, musical instruments, paintings and jewellery you could possibly want in life. Plus tat. A lot of it! We were only given about 20mins to get off the minibus and shop before we had to head off to another tourist spot so after some speedy browsing, David and I bought 2 CD's: Peruvian folk music (hey! You CANNOT leave Peru without some pan pipe melodies!) and another CD of really nice chill-out music that actually originates from the Hotel where we stayed when we visited Machu Pichu! (David: I am convinced that this was where they filmed a scene from the new Indiana Jones film... the bit that pretends to be in Cusco... narrow streets, stalls everywhere, and a weird drainage system down the middle of the alleyways. Fantastic place, like going back in time... but without the muck and dirt. Peru is very clean, remember - keep up....)
Back on the bus and the next place we went to were the Pisac Inka Ruins. These were larger than Machu Pichu believe it or not. The ruins are on the top of a mountain but at the entrance to The Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley is so called because it houses a collection of ruins that were once thriving Inca villages.
The Sacred Valley
The sacred aspect of it is apparently because the Incas believed that the valley's special geographical and climatic conditions was highly beneficial to the villages financial success'. Like Machu Pichu, there are many terraces built onto the side of the mountain that again served to cultivate agriculture and some of these terraces are still used today. We were not able to go down and see them properly as they are protected from tourists trampling all over them! Further up the mountain, lay the citadel. These ruins were incredible and allowed you to see all along the valley and the surrounding land which was absolutely stunning. Although the climb up there was not at all funny.....David and I got chatting to this really lovely Japanese man who was a tv cameraman and who had filmed the Obama/McCain election. He thought our camera was very funny! Saying he used to have one of those about 15 years ago! Right..... (David: Pfft)Back on the bus and our next stop was lunch. Hoorah!! For some reason, although there was only about 20 of us, we all got separated into different groups and different restaurants for lunch. David and I had lunch with this Indian doctor who now lives and practices in Las Vegas. He was a really nice man and when we told him about our travels in India he agreed that the country is sadly going down the pan. Beautiful but dirty and disgusting. Especially the hospitals, he said. He also amazed us when he said that god forbid if he were in a terrible accident in USA then he would not be able to pay for the private medical fees that America demands! This guy was a professional doctor in Vegas and he was saying he would not be able to afford the medical fees for his own care!!!! How the hell can Joe Public then?!!!! When you travel, you REALLY appreciate what the UK has to offer! The NHS is quite revolting and shameful in places (and I've personally experienced some horrors at the NHS) but you know, we really are bloody lucky actually.
Gender priorities: nose-picking and talking!
After lunch, we were taken to a place called Ollantaytambo. This was approx 2,500 metres above sea level and is more Inca ruins. During Inca times, Ollantaytambo used to be a palace for Emperor Pachacuti who conquered the area and then subsequently built a town. The ruins are again built on a mountain so to get to the top of the ruins involves a long, steep climb up rocky, stone steps which also involved more gasps for air and regular stops! The view, as usual though, at the top was incredible and made it all the more worthwhile.
Our final destination was a small mountain village called Chinchero. This was about 3,000 metres up. My ears and brain were loving the altitude.....It was grey and cloudy as we parked the mini bus and no sooner had we strolled through the winding cobbled alleyways to the main square, where sat hords of Peruvian women selling their wares on blankets, then the Heavens opened up and the rain came crashing down on us. The Peruvian women suddenly threw plastic sheeting over their goods and all of us tourists ran into the beautiful church that we were incidentally going to see anyway. The church was built in the 17th Century and apparently built on top of an Inca temple. It was a nice church. Much the same as others. A church's a church............ (David: With Peruvian Jesus and Peruvian Mary, and even the Peruvian saint that was a er... Peruvian slayer (rather than a muslim killer) I can't remember the saints name, but I'm sure he was a friendly chap once you got to know him - well, after he'd finished all his heathen slaying at the end of the day.)
After this, another short walk in the village brought us to a central sheltered spot from the rain where we were treated to demonstrations of wool dying by Peruvian women.
Little boy posing!
While sipping some coca tea on wooden benches, Peruvian women knelt before us and with the help of our guide to interpret, we were told about how the wool is sheared, spun and then dyed and then woven. We were shown how the different colours were made using natural dyes such as herbs and then turned into blankets and items of clothing (which of course you could buy from them later!!). It was really interesting. (David: They had a pretty impressive purple actually, made from something or other. I'm surprised the conquistadors didn't steal that as well, since purple was worth twice its weight in gold at that time.) We were then given some time to wander around the little village and maybe coo over the gerbils that were in their pen...ahh weren't they gorgeous?? And then they would be killed and fried for dinner and served with potatoes and other vegetables. (David: Yum)Back on the bus and as the rain poured down and darkness fell so did our eyelids on the bus! As we all fell asleep our tour bus sped its way around the winding moumtain roads back to the shimmering orange street lights of Cuzco. It had been a really interesting day and our last day in Cuzco. Tomorrow, we would be getting onto another train for a longer journey. (David: The Orient Express, no less. Who'd have thought there'd be an Orient Express up in the highlands of Peru?)
Love, us xxx
