Sacred Valley and Cusco Surroundings 2022
We had booked a tour guide, Roger, to take us around the various sights of the Sacred Valley, and we were to meet him at 8am. But before we did so, we decided to take advantage of the free breakfast at the hotel…Nick without coffee is an ugly sight in the morning.
Soon we were off to our first stop, the archaeological site of Ollantaytambo. Roger told us that in Quechua, the word ‘tambo’ means resting place, so Ollantaytambo means the resting place of Ollanta. He was a general, but came from the commoner class. He fell in love with the king’s daughter, and it was forbidden for them to get married. Despite being a successful general, he got imprisoned for loving the princess, until the king died and his brother-in-law was like “it’s cool bro”. They named the city after that guy.
In order to get in, we had to buy what was called was simply called a general entrance ticket, which cost around $30 USD or so. What the ticket really provides is single entry for multiple sites in the Sacred Valley and Cusco within a 10 day period, so it’s a great deal if you’re planning on visiting most of those sites anyway.
Once we entered the site, we were greeted with the signature Incan terracing:
One of the main attractions of Ollantaytambo is the Temple of the Sun located at the top of many stairs. Even though we had been at elevation for a few days, we still were gasping for air during our climb up, but that was fine because that gave Roger time to tell us the history of area. The Sacred Valley is named as such because during the Inca times, the lands in the valley were very fertile and allowed the Incas to grow numerous vegetables, including corn and potatoes. The area we were walking around was generally used for royalty and important events, while the civilians lived in the surrounding areas. On one of our stair breaks, we could see across to the other mountain where there were numerous storage buildings that were used to store potatoes and other food.
Returning to the Temple of the Sun, historians believe that it was never completed and that construction was halted due to the Spanish invasion. Once we made it up to the top, we could see many large stones on the ground, and the temple, which really only had one large interior wall still standing:
We continued through the terraces of Ollantaytambo, while enjoying the views of valley along the way:
Our next stop were the amazing circular terraces of Moray. We had seen many photos of this area, but because we were there in the dry season, the grass wasn’t as green, but it was still very impressive:
There are actually three circles in Moray, with the most photographed one being the largest of the three. We were stunned with how evenly round the terraces were, which shows just how skilled the Inca were with their architecture:
Roger told us that it’s believed that the Inca used Moray as an agricultural laboratory. The terracing allowed for different growing temperatures, with the lowest terraces being cooler than the higher ones. Just standing on the outer ridge, we could definitely feel the almost immediate temperature changes when the wind blew in. It was rather warm when the wind was stagnant, but when a breeze came by, it picked up the cool air from beneath. The Inca would then use this to their advantage by planting various crops on different terraces to see what could survive at certain temperatures, allowing them to plan for future planting seasons.
We continued walking through and appreciating the beauty that was surrounding us. Soon we were off to our next stop, the Maras salt flats.
Like many natural wonders, pictures of this area don’t really do it justice. When we first got a glimpse of it from the car going down, our initial impression was that it is much larger than we had thought, and when we actually walked down to the flats, it was beautiful:
I believe Roger told us that there were about 4000 different sections. Families living in Maras and in surrounding communities owned around 5-10 different sections, meaning that they were responsible for producing and harvesting the salt from their sections that they could then sell for themselves. While we were there, we could see numerous people out in the salt flats manually harvesting salt and piling them up for drying before selling them:
Three types of salt can be harvested: white salt, rose salt (naturally colored by minerals in the water), and bath salts. The first two can be used for consumption, while the bath salts were not. While exiting the salt flats, numerous stalls had all three types for sale.
The water used for the salt flats comes from a continuous source up in the mountains, but the engineering needed to route this single source of water to the large area of the flats was impressive. Unfortunately we couldn’t really go into the flats themselves to see how the water could reach the far ends of the flats, but we could see a bit of the path:
It was now time for lunch, so we stopped in the city of Maras at a restaurant called La Portada. Outside they were drying corn for future cooking:
Elsewhere on the property, they were growing various produce which we assumed were used for their dishes. We ordered some muña (Andean Mint) tea, and I think we saw someone run from the kitchen to the herb garden to cut some fresh muña. There was also a coop with young chickens there, and also chicken on the menu, so yeah… We had a great lunch there, and we were soon ready for our last stop, Chinchero.
Here, we were shown a local weaving village, but before we got to the demonstration, I had to stop to feed the alpacas and the one llama:
So cute! Although, Nick said the llama was quite aggressive with the grass that he was holding, but none of them spit at us, so that’s good.
At the village, the women learn to shear the alpaca and llama to gather the raw wool. Our village guide, Milagros, showed us that instead of using electric shears, they instead use a small piece of glass with a sharp edge to collect the yarn:
Next, they have to clean the wool because it’s generally dirty, and instead of using soap, they use a root that’s similar to yucca. First they grate it into some water:
And then strain it into another bowl of water which they then use to soak the raw wool to clean it of any impurities:
Finally, cleansed raw wool is set out on a tree to dry for the next process, spinning it into yarn. For this, they essentially use a drop weight spindle:
And then the last process is dying the yarn. Here Milagros showed us how they create numerous colors from nature:
I can’t remember all of the dye ingredients, but red, an important color for them, is used by collecting small insects that live on cacti and crushing them to gather their blood:
By squeezing some lemon juice to the blood, you get orange. Various leaves and flowers can be used for many of the other colors, and black is natural in that it comes from the wool of black alpacas. After the yarn is dyed and set, it can be used for the weaving process, which Milagros showed us next.
The yarn is woven through what I guess could be called a loom and then an alpaca bone is used to set it down in place:
The patterns that they use to create their woven works are all memorized, and I’m assuming passed down from generation to generation. According to Milagros, they learn to do all of this starting at the age of seven because if they don’t know how to do this, they won’t be able to have a husband.
After buying a small blanket, we headed back to the hotel for dinner and then rested up for our next day.
The following morning, we returned to have breakfast before meeting Roger again, who would be taking us to Cusco, where we would be spending one night. But on the way, we would stop by some of the sites around Cusco. We had told Roger that one of the things Jerry wanted to do while in Peru was to see alpacas, so he suggested an animal sanctuary, Cochahuasi, so we headed there first.
As we walked in, we could see a few different animals, such as macaws, deer, and some small monkeys. We weren’t allowed to wander the animal sanctuary by ourselves, so we had to wait for a guide to give us a tour. First was the Andean Bear, which is much smaller than our grizzly or brown bears. We also think this is the species that Paddington bear is:
Next we saw the tiny deer family, who were very friendly with humans:
And then our guide took us into the alpaca and llama area, where Jerry fulfilled his wish of petting a baby alpaca. We were told that the young alpaca there was three months old, so still quite young and extremely cute. Mommy alpaca was busy eating, so she wasn’t too annoyed that I was petting her or her baby. There were other alpaca and llamas there as well:
And in a separate enclosure were the vicuña, a wild breed of the alpaca, and prized for their wool. They were fenced off because they were fairly aggressive, so the sanctuary wanted us to be safe from them. Also, they weren’t good at posing for photos:
We continued seeing some other animals, including a tiny bobcat:
But the big attraction here was the Andean condors. When walking into the large enclosure, we were already amazed by their size when standing, but it was when they were flying that we could appreciate their enormous wing span of 6 feet:
A few of them stood nearby posing for photos for us:
And with that, we left to head off to the first of a few archaeological sites, Tambomachay. This site housed a temple of water, with a couple of fountains still flowing now:
Roger also told us that they performed sacrifices here, including the black llama. To the Incans, the color black is a symbol of purity, and the black llama is the rarest color of them all. They also did human sacrifices here for very special occasions, and for those, they would sacrifice young girls. Apparently, these girls would need to hike up a to a glacier capped mountain, but for the week leading up to their hike, they would essentially fast. And on the day of the hike and sacrifice, they would be given hallucinogenic herbs to help them make the ascent. Some girls made it, others did not, and for those who did succeed, the priest who accompanied the girl would hit her on the back of the head with their scepter to ensure a successful sacrifice.
One girl, whom we believe is named Juanita, was found many years later preserved in the glacier. Anthropologists have studied her in order to understand more about these sacrifices and the Incan culture.
The next stop was basically across the road, Pukapukara. This was the site of a fortress/checkpoint because of its location on a hill overlooking the Cusco valley:
After walking around a bit, we continued on to the next site, Q’enqo. This site is known for a cave in the rocks where they would perform mummification of bodies:
Inside the cave is a stone altar which was used for mummification and also animal sacrifices. The cave itself was kept naturally cool due to the stone surrounding it, and insulating it from the sun:
And finally, we headed off to our last stop, Sasqaywaman. This was a temple to the sky and lightning, with very impressive large stones being used for the terraced walls:
Roger told us to take a photo in front of the largest stone, which we believe is 200 tons:
The entire site is impressive, but unfortunately the temple at the top no longer exists. And on the other side of the terraced walls is a great view of Cusco city:
At this point, we headed to our hotel and said goodbye to Roger. We were hungry, so we grabbed some lunch and walked through some of the smaller city plazas. In one of plazas, we saw what appeared to be floats that were used in a recent parade, possibly to celebrate the city of Cusco:
We also found a cute chocolate shop where we bought more chocolate, because of course we did. The sun was almost setting, so we headed back to the hotel to rest up for dinner and to get ready for our flight to Lima the next day.