More Sacred Valley Meanderings
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Ollantaytambo, Sacred Valley, Peru
Late Sunday afternoon, we decided to go for a walk down to the train station, just to see how long the walk was and whether we would need a ride with our luggage on Tuesday. It's only about a 15 minute walk and downhill, but we decided we would get a ride--we really are turning into wimps in our old age! Anyway, it'll give a chance to ride in a tuk-tuk, I hope. Sunday night, we went for a fabulous dinner at a new little family restaurant called Apu Veronica. The dinner was tremendous, but it was sad that we were the only people in the place.
I was able to get the Blue Jays game radio feed online, too, so I was listening during and after dinner. (Go Jays! Beat Cleveland!) Monday was our day for a taxi tour of some of of the Inca sites around the Sacred Valley, booked through KB tours. Our driver, Donado, was great. Though he spoke no English (there are no English speaking taxi drivers available in Ollanta), he managed to convey a lot of information with sign language and the fact that I can understand bits and pieces of Spanish, and he pointed out lots of interesting sights along the way. We headed out a 8 a.m. and our first destination was Moray (altitude 11,100 feet, compare to 9200 in Ollantaytambo). Donado took us in the back way over a winding mountain road for some spectacular views. At Moray there are a number of large circular terraced depressions, the deepest of which is approximately 30 meters down. There is a temperature difference of up to 15C between the top and the bottom and it is speculated that the Incas used these to experiment with different crops in the different micro-climates of the various levels.
Next was on to the salt pond terraces at Maras (also 11,100 ft.), which date to pre-Inca times. Water from an underground spring with a very high salt concentration is allowed to slowly trickle down through tiny channels to the hundreds of individual ponds (each independently owned), to evaporate and leave the salt behind. This same method, and the cooperative rules for maintaining the system, have been in place for hundreds of years.
Next, on to Chinchero (12,400 ft.!), another massive terraced Inca site, which appears to have been primarily agricultural, with a huge open square next to a 17th century colonial church which was built on the site of an Inca temple or palace.
After our 6 hour tour (it was only supposed to be 5), we were hungry and had a great soup and sandwich lunch at a little bakery/restaurant called La Esquina on the main square. A quiet afternoon and then we decided to go back to Apu Veronica for dinner again. Food was still very good, but not quite as good as the first night and our eyes were a bit bigger than our stomachs. It was good to see that she was quite busy this night, though. So that is about it for Ollantaytambo. Tuesday, off to Machu Picchu Pueblo (or Aguas Caliente, as it is also known).
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