Before I get to our tour I want to show you what happens when a bunch of cyclists show up and stay in your hotel. We're in a beautiful little hotel (Hotel Garcilso) near the centre of Cusco . So, what do we do? Hang our tents and laundry out everywhere to dry. Honestly, this is a pretty little courtyard.Onto the tour. We had booked a 2 day tour. Day 1 is to leave Cusco via mini-bus and tour the Sacred Valley until we take a train to Agua Caliente, nearest town to Cusco. The next day we go to Machu Picchu for a guided tolur before returning to Cusco by train that evening.
Today's post will tell you about the first day.
We climb out of the Cusco valley and our first stop is at a craft market. Herer's a produce display
A lady doing traditional weaving. (I had to pay her for the photo - 75 cents)
Views of the Sacred Valley. Sorry, I forgot why it is called the Sacred Valley, although as a fertile, productive valley it was a key part of the Inca infrastructure.
Next stop, the Inca ruins at Pisaq. I think the building was a granary. Note the stone steps built into the terrace wall.
View from above showing all of the farming terraces, which the Incas built to increase their productive land.
View of the city. Note all of the steps in the terrace walls.
Julia, our guide (in the hat) talking about the house she's in.
Close-up of the wall. The niches were used to store mummies of dead upper class. they were mummified in fetal position and stood in the niches. A rope went through the holes in the rocks to keep the mummy (or daddy - sorry!) from falling out.
Cliff face with holes. What did they do with this useless cliff? Why, it was a cemetery and bodies were stored in the holes. Can't waste productive land.
This is a cleansing shower. You knelt on the stones, placed your hands under the niches and put your head under the water.
Next we stopped in the village below and, along with looking through the market, we watched this traditional oven in action (chicken coming out). I had some wonderful Cheese empanadas hot right bout of the oven.
Then a buffet lunch which included a singer and this little fellow hawking his wares outside.
Next ruins are Ollantataytambo (try saying that quickly), built by the Incan emporer Pachacuti. These are famous for the terraces (sorry about the poor photo - it was windy and the sun was t the wrong angle).
Note the granaries built into the cliff in this photo. They are way up the cliff and were placed there for the good ventilation.
Also, to the left of the main granary is a 'face.' I forget the story, but there was some significance to the face. (One of my few complaints about tours like this is that you get bombarded with information to the point of overload).
Various structures (houses I believe)
The bath of the Princesses
Another cliff side granary with a guard house in front.
Laura and I both loved Ollantataytamco, but we had to leave it too soon to catch the train to Agua Caliente. No good photos of the train trip. Agua Caliente (literally "Hot Water") was named for some nearby mineral pools).
Trumpet tree on the way to our hotel.
A view of the town and train station from our 5th floor hotel room.
Nice room, eh? We were very impressed by the quality of the tour Laura booked and the people involved. And it had the best showers of any hotel on the trip. Compared well to some of the cold, barely dripping showers we encountered while camping.
Enough for now. The next post will be the big highlight, Machu Picchu.
No comments:
Post a Comment