The Inca Ruins in the Sacred Valley
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Sacred Valley, Peru
Since we asked for a late start time today, we slept in until 7:30. Had a cooked to order breakfast at the hotel then got picked up at 9:30 by Pilar our guide for this part of the trip. Our first stop was at Pisac where we viewed the first Inca ruins of the day. The fortress construction on the side of the hills is amazing. We skipped the Pisac craft market since it was overrun with crazy tourists. Our van would have gotten in but not out. Next was a very enjoyable lunch in the Sacred Valley at the home of Aida and Kinkulla's house. This was a real treat. Aida prepared a beautiful, tasty lunch consisting of salad with ingredients from her garden, leek soup, and fresh trout caught in the morning by her husband. We also had a new cold drink, chucha moraba, which is made from water and corn. Lunch was topped off with an elderberry crepe and coffee from home grown beans. Kinkulla is a retired psychologist and a well known painter in Peru. We had a wonderful discussion using Pilar as our interpreter. Our next stop was an hour away at Ollantaytambo the site of additional Inca ruins. When you look at the location of some of their buildings on the hillsides you can only guess at how difficult they were to build. We toured the site seeing their "houses of worship," sleeping areas, water system, etc. Words cannot do justice to the incredible sites we saw today. We arrived at our hotel, Sol y Luna in the town of Urubamba, about 5 PM. The flowers on the grounds are beautiful. We got upgraded to a deluxe casita of approximately 1200 sq. feet which was an added bonus. Makes our hotel in Cusco look like a closet. Before going to dinner, the staff delivered hot water bottles for our beds. We split a chicken dinner in the Wayra restaurant tonight since we were still full from lunch but when we got back to the room we took advantage of the provided truffle tray.
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2025-02-08