Short Summary: Tour of sacred valley including Chinchero Urubamba Ollantaytambo Calca and Pisac
Woke up at 7:20 to a semi cold shower. Breakfast was very slow to be served and our tour guide came 5 min early so she had to wait for us.
Our tour guide for the day was Nancy and our driver was Hugo with Resposible Tours of Peru. We left Cusco through the suburbs. The first stop was an overlook to see the many snow capped mountains. Then we stopped at an artisan workshop in Chinchero. We saw their guinea pigs and llamas and then got some free coca tea. A local girl then told us how they dye the different colors and gave us a demonstration including the weaving process. Then of course it was time to shop. We got lots of nice things for us and our family. The highlight is probably a big wall hanging made from llama with a bird motif.
Next stop was the ruins at Chinchero. This place is known as the birthplace of the rainbow. Here they did experimental agriculture on the many terraces. As it is everywhere around here there were amazing inca stonework walls with a spanish church on top of it. After some history from our guide Nancy it was on to Urbamba.
We stopped at a nice overlook of the town and more terraces. After we got through town we stopped to try the local chicha. This stuff was pretty good and all natural. Chicha is fermented corn that is somewhat like beer. The kind I liked more had strawberries added.
After more driving we got to Ollantaytambo. We got stopped by a Corpus Christi parade at the main square and our taxi driver seemed to get in trouble since he stopped traffic for a second to let us out to walk the short distance. The Ollantaytambo ruins are a large steep terrace system up to what they think was a sun temple, although this area was not done when the spannish came to conquer the area. There was again lots of impressive stone work. Another highlight is the inca face half carved into the mountain that creates a shaddow on the winter solstice. I wish we had more time to hike around here because there were many ruins we didn't get to see except for in the distance.
After we reached the bottom of the ruins we stopped at the Chaco Museum. It wasn't as cool as the place in Mindo but we did get more history and a taste of chocolate tea.
Next stop was lunch in Calca. We ate at this amazing mostly vegetarian restaurant Panza Verde (or green belly) run by 2 women from Holland. It is also a charity that helps the people practice better organic agriculture, and the food comes from the locals they are working with. The food was wonderful and there was also good coffee! You can see our review on tripadvisor.
Final stop on our tour was Pisac to see ruins and the big market. The ruins are a hilltop Inca citadel high above the village. There are 16 regions but we only saw 1. Most of the site is impressive terracing where many families lived and grew things. At the top there was some astronomical and worship sites. Sadly we only had about an hour here and we missed a lot of the ruins. The final stop was down in the town of Pisac to see the market. The place was huge and we picked up a few more gifts for people
We then were driven back to Cusco. In our room we switched into warmer clothes and headed out to find a supermarket, carabeaners and dinner. The main square still had some bands and processions going on. Our trip to the supermarket took us through a crowded festival area. Just about any type of thing and food was on sale and the area was very crowded. When we finally got to the supermarket they tried to charge us $20 for some juice. Took a while but we got that fixed and were on our way to dinner.
Inkazuela in San Blas was the place Zach picked for dinner. They had great stews. A large strange american family sat by us and entertained us through dinner. Finnally after dinner it was back to the hotel to pack for the Inca trail. We leave at 5:20 am and will be back late Mon night. No pictures or updates until then. On Tuesday I hope to find better internet so we can get more pictures up.
Woke up at 7:20 to a semi cold shower. Breakfast was very slow to be served and our tour guide came 5 min early so she had to wait for us.
Our tour guide for the day was Nancy and our driver was Hugo with Resposible Tours of Peru. We left Cusco through the suburbs. The first stop was an overlook to see the many snow capped mountains. Then we stopped at an artisan workshop in Chinchero. We saw their guinea pigs and llamas and then got some free coca tea. A local girl then told us how they dye the different colors and gave us a demonstration including the weaving process. Then of course it was time to shop. We got lots of nice things for us and our family. The highlight is probably a big wall hanging made from llama with a bird motif.
Next stop was the ruins at Chinchero. This place is known as the birthplace of the rainbow. Here they did experimental agriculture on the many terraces. As it is everywhere around here there were amazing inca stonework walls with a spanish church on top of it. After some history from our guide Nancy it was on to Urbamba.
We stopped at a nice overlook of the town and more terraces. After we got through town we stopped to try the local chicha. This stuff was pretty good and all natural. Chicha is fermented corn that is somewhat like beer. The kind I liked more had strawberries added.
After more driving we got to Ollantaytambo. We got stopped by a Corpus Christi parade at the main square and our taxi driver seemed to get in trouble since he stopped traffic for a second to let us out to walk the short distance. The Ollantaytambo ruins are a large steep terrace system up to what they think was a sun temple, although this area was not done when the spannish came to conquer the area. There was again lots of impressive stone work. Another highlight is the inca face half carved into the mountain that creates a shaddow on the winter solstice. I wish we had more time to hike around here because there were many ruins we didn't get to see except for in the distance.
After we reached the bottom of the ruins we stopped at the Chaco Museum. It wasn't as cool as the place in Mindo but we did get more history and a taste of chocolate tea.
Next stop was lunch in Calca. We ate at this amazing mostly vegetarian restaurant Panza Verde (or green belly) run by 2 women from Holland. It is also a charity that helps the people practice better organic agriculture, and the food comes from the locals they are working with. The food was wonderful and there was also good coffee! You can see our review on tripadvisor.
Final stop on our tour was Pisac to see ruins and the big market. The ruins are a hilltop Inca citadel high above the village. There are 16 regions but we only saw 1. Most of the site is impressive terracing where many families lived and grew things. At the top there was some astronomical and worship sites. Sadly we only had about an hour here and we missed a lot of the ruins. The final stop was down in the town of Pisac to see the market. The place was huge and we picked up a few more gifts for people
We then were driven back to Cusco. In our room we switched into warmer clothes and headed out to find a supermarket, carabeaners and dinner. The main square still had some bands and processions going on. Our trip to the supermarket took us through a crowded festival area. Just about any type of thing and food was on sale and the area was very crowded. When we finally got to the supermarket they tried to charge us $20 for some juice. Took a while but we got that fixed and were on our way to dinner.
Inkazuela in San Blas was the place Zach picked for dinner. They had great stews. A large strange american family sat by us and entertained us through dinner. Finnally after dinner it was back to the hotel to pack for the Inca trail. We leave at 5:20 am and will be back late Mon night. No pictures or updates until then. On Tuesday I hope to find better internet so we can get more pictures up.
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