Tony and Liz's Travel Adventures: PERU: Leaving Cusco for the Sacred Valley, Ollantaytambo and to Machu Picchu

With all the excitement of getting up to Machu Picchu and getting some photos up on the Blog, I now have to back-track to cover a big chunk of the trip before we actually got to Machu Picchu village – just to confuse you! But seeing the photos you can understand why – it was just amazing and worth the long climb and pain to get there before sunrise before the estimated 5000 visitors per day (yes, it is not a mistake – 5000 people).

Inca built walls in Cusco

The road trip from Cusco to Machu Picchu village was just as amazing having stopped at a Planetarra project (where some of our tourist $ go), climbing up Inca ruins in the Sacred Valley, and going through a UNESCO village called Pisaq, before finally stopping at Ollantaytambo, another UNESCO village, where we stayed at a hostel for a couple of nights.

So getting back on track, some of our intrepid travelling companions had already left the day before to trek the Incra Trail with the plan that they were going to meet us up on the ruins of Machu Picchu in 4 days (Andy, Raina, Heather, Adam, Hannah, Nicola, David, Clare and Johnny).

The "Inca disc" entering Cusco

Just after leaving Cusco we passed Inca ruins in the Parque Arqueologico de Saqsaywaman (pronounced Sexy Woman), before heading up and over the Andes again before heading into a huge valley, where from a distance we could see patchwork of white fields. We were told this was actually corn being dried (white Grande Maize), just harvested and laid out on the ground. In the days before in Cusco I had bought one of these huge corn cobs from a old lady street vendor. She was boiling a huge pot of corn on a single gas burner. It was delicious, but just so big that I couldn’t finish it. In a way I felt a little sorry as she had been sitting there for the past 4 days from early morning to dusk selling her corn for just a few cents.

During this phase of the trip we welcomed a new guide, and a new bus driver whose was named “Crazy Puma” and it wasn’t until later that we would find out why. The Incas worship the Puma and can be found on many of their drawings, on artefacts and crafts. However, in this case, Crazy Puma was given the name for his driving skills and this was evident when we visited the Planeterra Project in the mountains behind Cusco.

He is another of tho Peruvian wild drivers – gutsy and fearless. I’m sure he could feel our fingers scratching the leather of the bus seats as we ascended up the winding mountains roads. Actually I thought he was really a ‘softie’ because he had this toy llama on the dashboard of the bus.

At the Planeterra community we were shown how the women colour their fabrics, weave and cook using their traditional sustainable methods. G Adventures is proactive in sponsoring different communities around the world using $ from travellers like us to use towards building schools, community halls etc as a way to help the people maintain their culture and traditions. The was also a connection to home in that the women use Eucalyptus leaves for the green to grey shades of colouring in their Alpaca wool. We were told that back in the 70's, Peru imported huge nunbers of Eucalypts from Australia of all places. Tony and I had noticed them but thought this must be from the Spanish days because my big Sis Yush told me that Australia imports more Eucalyptus oil from Spain than Oz produces, and she is a good authority on chemicals.

Farmed Eucalyptus in Peru

Gum trees are growing everywhere in the dry highlands of Peru. It is also used for building homes and although it is now being harvested in tree farms, it is also depleting the soils and taking away from some of Peru's valued agricultural lands.

After being shown around the community, back on the bus we headed for the Sacred Valley near which is located near Calca .

Inca ruins at the Sacred Valley

Although it was high in the mountains Tony managed to get around his fear of heights without looking down into the depths of the valley, instead enjoying the views of the mountains above.

Back on the lower valley roads Police pulling over cars. In the week leading up to Mothers day (or any other festive day), police pull over all traffic to check for registration or traffic infringements.

The money doesn’t go to the government coffers instead going to their Mothers Day fund for a family party. Apparently common practice in Peru. Then there are the Moto-Taxis they are something else.

Moto Taxi

Moto Taxis are motorbikes that have been made up with doors and canopies, some with custom paint jobs , a variety of advertising covering them and sometimes have plush fur, and curtains adorned on the inside of them. They are another Peruvian Limosine.

Moto Taxi Rank

After stopping for a relatively quick lunch we continued on further into the valley to Ollantaytambo where we checked into our hostel, and where we would climb up Inca terraces. Legend has it that if you were to climb up and sit on the Inca King's seat you would feel 20 years younger. I’m still waiting to get that feeling !!

Ollantaytambo

Inca Terraces

Tony made a fantastic effort again by climbing to the top of the ruins and to give you an idea of how high we climbed check out the photo. The village is to the left and you can just see groups of people making their way across the terraces. I had already scaled the paths across the top to take this photo to the left. Magnificent!!

Another interesting point about this historic town is that is has aquaducts flowing through the streets.

It is not a place that you would want to be – at night – after a lot of drinks, because the water channels are actually flowing in the middle of the streets, there is no electricity and there are also large water pits that could be easily stepped into.

I nearly did, and I swear I hadn’t even had anything to drink !!!
Although we did quickly visit the local where they sell a local drink called “Chicha” made from corn and is a purple hazy colour. There was only a couple of us who liked it – but this had nothing to do with me nearly falling into the water near our hostel.

Inca Telephone Booths

Ollantaytambo, in a deep valley surrounded by mountains, was a beautiful village where cars and bus traffic was limited to certain streets. And just before dusk I had a chance to walk around the streets, nodded to locals, checked out the markets and some craft shops. It had a really good feel about it and you can understand why the Incas chose this valley as one site to build their fortresses.

Ollantaytambo is also the point where we would travel by Peru Rail further up into the mountains to Machu Picchu village and the start of the next part of our travel adventures.

[ With Machu Picchu covered in a previous Blog, the next post will see us leaving Machu Pichhu village headed back to Cusco ]

To be continued ……….