I received a phone call from the front desk that my tour guide had arrived. First time I have ever had a guide show up early. LOL I had received an email last night indicating they would be at the hotel by 8:15am and he was there at 8am! Off we went and met with 9 other people to tour Sacred Valley, Pisac and Ollantaytambo.
We first stopped at a farm in Awana Kancha and visited with Llamas, Alpacas and Vicuna (The National Animal).
This was not a scheduled stop on our itinerary, but was part of the company itinerary. After seeing and feeding the llamas, we went to the next section of the farm where they had displays of how they make the textiles and then we visited their shop.
I was not impressed with this as we had driven by a great view of Cusco only to visit a shop. The guide explained that we would next be visiting a market. I thought, wow, this was not going to be a great tour as we would spend the entire morning in markets.
We did stop next at a viewpoint of the Sacred Valley. The reason they call this the Sacred Valley is because of the river that runs through it. During the Inca days water was looked at as a god relevant to mother earth. It was a beautiful view from here.
We stopped in Pisac, which is right by the river and the guide took us through part of a market to a large jewellery shop and the clerk would give us a demonstration of how to identify silver. After the demonstration the ladies of the shop approached many from the group and asked if they wanted to see anything. I quietly left and walked through the market taking photos.
The guide did tell us that Sunday was the best day to tour Pisac as at 11am there was a special Church service that is spoken only in their cultural language.
When I was walking through the market, I heard the horns sound at 10:30am and I quickly headed towards the Church. I rounded the corner and came across a procession of local males dressed in their customary clothing.
I followed them to the Church and they formed a horseshoe in front of the main door. When some locals approached the Church to go inside, the horns would sound off. They only sounded the horns when those that were dignitaries from the area approached. It was quite an interesting introduction to a service.
I walked around the community taking photos.
I found it interesting that the majority of buildings were made from mud bricks.
One shot I was taking of a street and there was a lady with her daughter at the other end. They ran down towards me smiling and in Spanish asked if I wanted to take their photo for $1.00. I indicated I did not that I was taking a photo of the street. They made three attempts to try and get money from me. I continued walking up the street and their smile turned to a very serious frown. I really did not like to see a child being exploited to make money for the family so had no problem walking away.
We left Pisac and made our way to Yucay for lunch. I must say that when we pulled into the restaurant I was impressed with the layout. It was an outside restaurant attached to a Church and a outside plaza.
It was a very lovely place. The food was buffet style and was very well prepared, a great feed … so full. LOL
We headed about an hour to the next location, Ollantaytambo. This Inca site was quite an important strategic fortress. The meaning of Ollantaytambo was resting place. When the Inca travelled from Machu Picchu to Cusco, or from Cusco to Machu Picchu, this is where they stopped to rest. Ollantaytambo was a major strategic location as the three valleys met here.
After the guide explained the importance of the location, we walked to the top to the Sun God temple. It was explained that the large rocks were moved to this location from a neighboring mountain that you can see from the top … so hard to imagine. On a mountain that faced the front of the fortress, you could see a face that had been sculptured.
Further up the mountain was another sculpture showing a side view of an Incan Warrior. The interesting part about this particular sculpture, is that on June 21st the sunrise comes up right by the side view of the Incan Warrior. Can you see it? It was an absolutely amazing place to explore.
