We had already driven alongside the River Urubamba on our way to Cusco (although it has a different name at that point) and this river lies at the heart of the Sacred Valley. A number of imprtant Inca remains lie along the valley although none is as substantial as the elusive Machu Picchu. All are reachable by public buses but the infrequency and unreliability of the services meant that it made more sense to take an organised tour to visit them. Indeed, although nobody in the town had mentioned it, once we had set off it became obvious that the recent flooding and landslides have severely disrupted villages, roads, bridges and the local buses. It is just as well we had opted to do it this way; making our own arrangements might well have left us stranded in any number of places!

Our first stop was Chinchero, where we were first subjected to a demonstration of natural dying and weaving. One of the inconveniences of these tours is that you always have to go to handcraft centres etc for 'shopping'. In fact this stop was rather better than we had anticipated although Jen has a folder of information about natural dying at home that goes into much more detail than here! The highlight was when a basket of dried cochineal beetles was produced and the woman crushed one with her nail to show the brilliant red colour.






We then followed cobbled streets and steps up to the ruins of the site which was originally known as the village of the rainbow. The Incan remains begin on one side of the main plaza, which may itself have originally been an Inca marketplace, and then extend further down and along the hillside. The walls are constructed from typically massive stones, with a number of trapezoidal arches that may have held gold deities.

The village also boasts a highly decorated adobe church but our visit was fleeting. As it was Sunday and 11am, the villagers were all gathering in the church for the service. Large numbers of tourists disrespectfully milling all around the aisles and jabbering away to each other while the congregation waited patiently was not a pretty sight! Our guide had suggested twenty minutes free time at this stage (for more shopping!) but when we gathered at the bus we found ourselves two people short. After waiting another 40 minutes for them we set off, leaving them behind. Later, as we travelled along the road, our driver got a call on his mobile. The missing couple had hired a taxi to chase us, so we stopped and waited again for them to arrive.

This was by a bridge over the Urubamba River, where we could see some of the destruction that the floods have inflicted on the area. Significant numbers of the adobe houses have been swept away, often almost completely destroying them. The government has provided tents and rows of these are pitched on fields and village plazas. Many of these people had already been living a very simple life but it must be so heartbreaking to have lost it all.

Once our missing folk finally got to us, we set off for Ollytantambo, which has quite extensive and spectacular remains. The Incas built a temple and city complex here, over and around a fairly extensive pre-Inca settlement, while also refining and developing the vast range of existing agricultural terracing. These terraces cling to the steep sides of the mountain and seem to lead, like a series of staircases to the temple area at the very top. High up on the slopes around the complex, in order to catch the breezes and keep them cool, can be seen the remains of storehouses that were used to keep grain and other foodstuffs to ensure the self sufficiency of the city. 

The temple area has a number of really massive stones that have been supposedly assembled to form an altar to the sun. However, our guide showed us that it actually points in the wrong direction for a sun temple; she believed that it was actually a temple to Pachamama, the Earth Mother. Whatever the truth, the fact remains that the Incas never actually completed building the place. From the high vantage point you can look down and see the clear signs of the path taken by the massive stones from the quarry across on the far mountain. the Incas may never have invented the wheel but they sure had plenty of people to do the hardest jobs!

Our final stop on the tour was in Pisac, a ruined citadel perched high on an outcrop of volcanic rock, surrounded by centuries old terracing, much still in active use. The road twists, turns and ascends steeply to bring us closer to the ruins and we were quite pleased to have avoided at least a part of the punishing uphill climb (although there was still a fair way to go once we had stopped). The views from the top were truly breathtaking although as usual, the camera never seems to capture the full splendor of what we saw.

Looking across from the top we could see hundreds of holes bored into the sheer slope of the adjacent mountain. These were the tombs of ordinary people, originally formed by going down on ropes to dig the hole. They then wrapped the bodies with simple grave goods and took them down on ropes to be pushed into place. Finally the holes were capped with more mud and rocks. Over time the caps have been eroded away and the attention of grave robbers (approaching the graves in the same way as they were made) has left nothing but the holes.

Although we had originally been disappointed to miss out on a visit to Machu Picchu, the remains in the sacred valley are still very impressive and gave us a good flavour of the Incan heritage. What has been most remarkable to us has been the realisation of how substantial the Inca domination was of such a vast area but for how short a period. There seem many reasons for the absolute collapse of the Incan empire in the face of the Spanish invasion. It's true that the Spanish had guns, height and white faces, all of which accorded with the Incan views of the gods. However, the Incas had also made a lot of enemies who were keen to cooperate with the Spanish invaders to get rid of them. Little did they know how absolutely the Spanish would then dominate the whole continent!