Staggering around the Sacred Valley...

  Cusco, Sacred Valley, Peru
Tuesday, May 23, 2006

Hi everyone

We have been busily exploring the Sacred Valley this last weekend, and Iīve also had the Peruvian death flu that seems to have struck down every second person here! Am taking a couple of days off work to try and recover properly before the Inca Trail this weekend (yay!!!). So apologies once again for the tardiness of my updates.

(I will do another post tomorrow with the rest of my Valley photos - this one is all from Saturday.)

Itīs so beautiful out in the Valley - donīt get me wrong, I love Cusco, but itīs always loud and busy here. On Saturday we visited three more sites in the Valley - Chinchero, an Incan agricultural site, Ollantaytambo, a religious, agricultural and trade centre, and Pisac, also largely agricultural.


View over the Sacred Valley to snow-capped mountains

Chinchero
There were spectacular views from here to the snow-capped mountains in the distance. I struggled a lot at this site, as it is at around 4000m, and with my cold I only had about half my normal lung capacity! Lots of terraces here for different crops (mostly corn of course). From where I sat down after giving up on trying to walk, I was able to watch the local people tending their crops by hand and with bullocks as the Incas would have.



Ollantaytambo
This was one of the highlights of my whole trip so far - Ollantay is like a miniature Machu Picchu. It was a very important religious, trade and agricultural centre for the Incas because it sits at a geographically significant site with valleys leading to Machu Picchu, Cusco and another important place I canīt remember (where the water came fro I think). You can see in one of these photos some Inca profiles in the rocks - pretty amazing stoneworkers those Incas!


There are battlements/guard tower things carved into the rocks as well, where soldiers would stand to get a view up each of the three approaching valleys in order to protect the important religious sites opposite. On the hill of the ruins themselves, there are the remains of the sun and moon temples and other places of worship. It took us about an hour and a half to clamber over everything, and we didnīt see it all - the site is HUGE!




This water was used to cleanse the Inca queen before she entered the chamber next door for a full purification ceremony

Pisac
We didnīt reach Pisac until really late in the day, so we didnīt have much time to explore. This site was mostly to guard the surrounding farmland, but had some interesting astrological functions as well. There is a solar clock that apparently still functions (we were there almost at sun set, so I have to trust the guide on that one!). There is also a lunar clock - I know there is a better word for that, someone help me!



More tomorrow on Pikillacta and Tipon...

P.S. Am finally getting over my horrible flu thing, raring to get on the Inca Trail on Saturday!