The Sacred Valley

We finally got a lie in today (6th August); our alarm didn't go until 7.15am!

Our first visit of the day was to the Ollyantambo ruins.  This is the only Incan fortress that defeated Spanish soldiers, creating the first and only Incan victory. Unfortunately a few weeks later the Spanish returned with four times as many soldiers and conquered Ollyantambo.

Just as we got back to the hostel I noticed that a woolly hat had got caught on the velcro of my bag. Worried that we may have accidentally stolen it we returned to the stalls we had visited earlier but didn't see any similar hats.  We asked one of the stallholders who then asked the others in the area but none claimed the hat. We therefore gave the hat to the helpful stall-holder as it didn't suit either of us. She could barely believe her luck.  Contented we hadn't stolen anything we went back to our hostel to make our way to Cusco.

Our taxi took us back to Cusco via two of the Sacred Valley sites. However, within 30 mins of leaving we had to stop.  One of engine drive belts had snapped.  Our driver had to take a bus to the next town to get a replacement leaving us in the car. Half an hour later, belt in hand and friend in tow our driver returned. 15 mins later we were back on the road at full speed.

The next stop was Moray. It's terraces are thought to be an Incan agricultural laboratory with each layer changing in altitude and thus climate. The size of the construct is breathtaking as is the climb back up!

Next we continued on to the Salanaris near Maras. One again the extent is amazing and a photo can't do it justice.

This site is active for salt production with several people working in the buckets when we visited (can you spot them on the photo?).

About halfway along the top we got caught up in a "crowd" (5 people) and had to stop. Without me noticing two of the local children were finding my gorilla pod tripod (bendy tripod) fascinating and gently poking it.

When Stu told me I took it off my bag to show them. They loved it and more than 30 mins later they were still occupied and fighting over who was going to play with it next.  Melanie and Estardo are 4 and 5 years old and were being looked after by their sister, Astra, who was working in one of the salt buckets. She was just 10 years old. 

Whilst I was sitting with the children, Stu went back to the car to get some sweets, pens and pencils to give to them (a breathless ascent and descent). Just as he arrived back a large coach tour came along and we decided it was time to go.  We gave each of them some sweets and a pen and pencil, retrieved my gorilla pod and said our goodbyes then made our way back to the car to continue our journey onto Cusco.

After another hour of driving we arrived at our hotel in Cusco. For dinner we went to a local restaurant and each enjoyed a Pisco sour, a local cocktail containing Pisco, lemon juice, sugar and egg - delicious!