More Incan Ruins

We had an earlyish morning today, getting up at 6.45 am.  Unfortunately I woke up with a sore throat today and lost my voice completely a few hours later.

However, we had a taxi tour booked to go and see the Pisaq ruins then on to Sacsaywamán (pronounced "sexy woman").

We beat the crowds to the extensive Pisaq ruins.  They consist of layer upon layer of agricultural terraces as far as the eye can see (across the valley) along with a couple of small villages, a hill top fortress and a tunnel carved through the mountain. 

It took us several hours to explore only about a third of the sites by which point the crowds were flocking in and the midday sun was beating down on us.  As we wanted to explore Cusco in the afternoon we decided to make a move onto Sacsaywamán.

Sacsaywamán is the largest known Incan ruins, larger than Machu Picchu. It too was a site of another short lived Incan victory. The same leader as at the Ollyantambo ruins led the rebellion, temporarily recapturing the site before being forced from it once again and moving onto Ollyantambo.

Not much remains at Sacsaywamán as the Spanish destroyed the fortress, using the stones as building materials for their own houses.

Near the Sacsaywamán site is a large cloth covered cross and on the opposite hill stands Christo Blanco, a replica of the statue that protects Rio De Janeiro but a third of the size. Both overlook the city of Cusco, protecting it.

At the site of the cross there are superb views of the city,  sprawling across the valley and up its sides almost to the top.

A path leads down from Sacsaywamán to the centre of Cusco so we decided to wall back into town.  When we arrived at the main plaza we had afternoon tea and watched life go by. We also got to see death go by with a funeral procession leaving one of the churches on the plaza, slowly walking around the square throwing petals onto the coffin.  After a short pause they entered the other church on the plaza.

No sooner had the procession moved on had the road sweeper cleaned up the petals and for once the beeping of car horns ceased!

And that was our day. We're now on the bus to Puno and expect to arrive around 5am tomorrow!

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!    

The Mysterious Incan City

Today (5th August) was our earliest start yet with the alarm going at 4.15am.

We arrived at the bus stop just under an hour later having rushed some breakfast to find the queue was already several blocks long. With 20 mins until the first bus was scheduled to depart the queue grew longer and longer, but so did the queue of buses waiting to take us all up the mountain. We counted 24 buses, each holding 25 people and there was enough people to fill them all.

Oddly the buses had to line up in ascending numerical order. Bus 13 was a little late and had to parallel park between the already waiting buses 12 and 14. Unlucky for some but this was our bus!

By 6.15 we were at the entrance gate. As we approached the desk we had our fingers crossed that our tickets would be accepted. They were scanned, an error popped up on screen. The error was ignored. Our tickets were stamped and in we went!

You can't appreciate just how big and magnificent Machu Picchu is from the photos but it was amazing.

The forecast was for rain (we got drenched yesterday as the heavens opened just after we started walking back to our hotel, and to add to the scene there were large claps of thunder), but as the sun rose the clouds cleared and slowly the golden light shone on the amazing brickwork of the sacred plaza.

Finally satisfied I'd taken enough photos we started to explore the city.

Although 600 people had arrived around the same time as us it didn't feel too full and the deeper we explored the less people we saw until we had the place to ourselves. This shows just how large Machu Picchu is.

The stones for each of the walls were all cut carefully to size with the more important buildings having perfectly square bricks.

The triangular end of the houses have been designed to resemble the shape of the mountains in the distance with one side slightly lower than the other.

After around 3 hours of exploring and still no rain we set off back to the bus stop. On arrival a large buzzy thing flew straight up Stu's t-shirt sleeve and stung him! His arm came up bright red with a large bump in the middle where the sting was. Over the next 30 minutes the redness spread to be the size of a beer mat! :-(

Fortunately the anti sting ointment and an antihistamine tablet brought the swelling down and now there's just a raised bump the size of a penny.

We're now sitting having lunch whilst we wait for our train and it's just started raining again. It seems the weather forecast (luckily) was 6 hours out!

Off to Machu Picchu

Slightly later than expected we arrived in Cusco this morning (4th August). With a little over an hour to spare we took a taxi to the rail station to continue our journey to Machu Picchu.

The taxi was a little suspect with the car alarm going for most of the journey. About halfway through he pulled over on a deserted street and took out a knife.

Fortunately it was just to pry open his car remote to change the battery so he could turn off the alarm. Silence at last (!) and off we went to the train station arriving with time for breakfast.

We were lucky on the train, having a set of 4 seats to ourselves. The train had large panoramic windows plus some more in the ceiling so we could admire the mountains towering above us.

About an hour into the journey the attendants started coming round with mini tablecloths and cutlery giving them out in silver service style. It felt quite uncomfortable looking out the window at the shanty towns whilst we relaxed in our air conditioned train in 1st class comfort.

As the train drove through the villages the driver pumped the horn and you could see everyone outside putting their hands over their ears or those of their children. It quite detracted from the excitement of the journey somewhat. At times it felt like we were intruding too much into the lives of the local people! :-(

Around 2 hours into the journey the scenery started to change. The landscape became green as far as the eye could see and the river flowed faster, a significant change from the canyon territory we had just come from (empty rivers and cactus filled deserts).

The scenery was reminiscent of Borneo although the rainforest trees were somewhat smaller.

Just after lunch we arrived in Aguas Calientes, which can only be reached by train.

Aguas Calientes is a tourist haven for anyone visiting Machu Picchu. We were greeted by stall upon stall off tourist niknacks, a distinct change from the wonderful calm we have experienced so far.

Our hotel was a short walk from the train station and our room was remarkably different to anywhere we have stayed so far. King size bed, hot water, heating, sofas, fridge, wardrobe and a safe.

Next we needed to buy our entrance and bus tickets to Machu Picchu. These aren't easily available online and given that the number of visitors is limited to 2500 per day there was a risk none would be left.

On attempt 3 at getting our tickets having found out they only took cash and then that they needed our passports we finally were in a position to buy them. Fortunately the guy at the counter seemed quite happy to sell us a pair of tickets at 128 soles each (£45!) plus the bus fare. However when I looked at the date on our tickets it said 9th August - they were sold out for tomorrow :-(

When I queried this the guy said not to worry just use the ticket for tomorrow anyway. With not much else we could do other than hope he was right we went back to our hotel and made good use of the comfortable surroundings. This was our first chance to truly relax since arriving in Peru.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow as we'll be having our earliest morning yet so we can catch the first bus up to ensure we see the sunrise - assuming they let us in!