Peru 2015: Sacred Valley/Cusco City Tour (09 December 2016)

The residential part of Ollantaytambo

   I got up at about 7 in the morning, dressed up, had some toast and coca tea for my breakfast. I walked around the wall-town too before decided to get my bread for the breakfast. Peruvians tend to get up very early so people are already starting to work in Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo is a wall city next to the ruin. It is very small but has its own charm I liked the wall part, as well as its sewage system, and it is right along a river too so irrigation was easy.

     I agreed to meet the taxi driver at 8 in the morning. Kat, the owner of hostel Chaska Wasi, gave me a lecture of how to store money properly in Peru.

   When I met the taxi driver, it was a different driver and the he was a younger man from the taxi driver I met on the previous night. I do not like this kind of dishonesty, and I should have rejected his offer on the spot. One thing I should have done was that I should have taken pictures and showed him that he had to keep his words. The taxi driver could have benefited and continue to be dishonest if he is allowed to and it is not good for the tourism of Peru. We only ended up on to Moray, Salinas, Chinchero, and a demonstration of dye near Chinchero. I was fairly disappointed that the taxi driver was not passionate (probably he was bored of seeing the same things all over) and did not enter chinchero (he just wanted to get things through) and go back to Cusco.

   Anyway, I was carpooled with two American tourists (whose name I have long forgotten). We drove through the back route to Maras. It was a curvy and hilly drive up to the to of the mountain range. Maras is a small village which is about an hour of drive from Ollaytatambo and is fairly remote. I saw a few Quechua people walking along the highway and was certainly a long walk.

   Moray was an experimental farm site built by the Incan Empire and it was built in circles. It was explained that different crops were planted on different levels of the terraces and there, because there was a significant differences in terms of the climate in between those terraces. There was also an irrigation system when water can be drawn to the terraces.

Moray, the experimental terraces built by the Incans

   After that, we visited Salinas. Salinas is a community-owned salt mine in the Sacred Valley. It was still a working salt mine, and it was breathtaking in terms of its scale. I liked the way that it has a good balance between a working mine and limited tourism. It educates people of how Andean people got their salt, as well a scenic site.

Salinas, salt terraces that has been used for centuries

   The taxi driver drove us to Chinchero, which is a small town known for its dye and its half Incan and Spanish architectures. We first arrived to the dye demostration/market. We saw some amazing demonstrations of natural dyes, and of course we were led to the market, which the lady started to sell us things. They expect you to buy some souvenirs and I understand they need money, so I bought a few of the arts (later I found them very generic, so they maybe factory-made), at least they were made in Peru.

   We saw Chinchero ruins from a far, which is a huge disappointment, because I did not have a and I didn't like the taxi driver for not driving into Chinchero. He drove the most direct route back to Cusco. Once I was dropped off at Plaza del Armas in Cusco, I was approached by a lady. She persuaded me to join the last minute city tour by offering me a discount. I took it and the following places were included: Qorincancha, Q'enco, Sacsayhuaman, Tambomachay, and Puca Pucara.

The Spanish built their own churches over the Incan again in Chinchero

These Incans are master stone masons

    Qorincancha is about 400 southeast of Plaza de Aramas. It was the religious center of the Incan Empire. After the Incan were conquered by Spain. The Spanish superimposed their own Catholic church onto the foundation of the Incan temple, probably used it as a gesture by the Spanish dominate the Incans. Interesting, the part that was built by the Spanish collapsed during an earthquake in 1950, while the the Incan foundation stood well.

    We visited Q'enko, Sacsayhuaman, Tambomachay, and Puca Pucara within 2 hours. It was such as little time for all those sites. The tour guide was very good and very enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and willing to learn new things. I was lucky to have such a tour guide.

Sacsayhuaman, a very large ruin which was just above the city center of Cusco