The Sacred Valley of the Incas
Trip Start
Aug 03, 2005
1
21
30
Trip End
Oct 20, 2005
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Pucay, Peru
Monday, September 12, 2005
The first mistake was not communicating very well with the agent at the train station. We told him where we wanted to go to little town of Pucay although we did not get how little it actually is. He told us the nearest stop was Urubamba. Ok, fine, Urubamba it is. What we didn't understand was that we would be deposited it the smallest train station you have ever seen, after dark, with no people around. It was a little like the scene from a movie. Imagine the two us standing there with our suitcases in the middle of nowhere in some place in Peru. Well the only structure next to the train station was a large fancy hotel. We explained to the security guard where we needed to go and they set off to find us a taxi. Well actually what happened was they woke up a teenager whose mother probably works at the hotel and told us he would take us in the hotel car. Did I mention that we had almost no money on us because there are no cash machines at Machu Picchu? We successfully got to our hotel which wasn't really too far and we had enough change to pay the kid. The hotel turned out to be really nice and was apparently a monastery at some point after being a summer home for a wealthy conquistador and before being a hotel.
So the next day our first mission was to find a cash machine and asked for a taxi to take us into the small town of Urubamba which has one cash machine in it. After some negotiation in Spanish with the cab driver who spoke no English we figured out that there aren't a whole lot of taxis and he gave us his cell phone number in case we needed him again. It took us all of 15 minutes to walk around the town and get cash. We called the cab driver from a pay phone, explained that we were the "touristas" and could he take us to the ancient Inca site in "Moray".
As an aside, we learned not to trust our guidebook which said that "Moray" was a 2 hour hike from Urubamba when in reality it is a 45 minute drive and about 14 miles.
So, again an interesting negotiation with the taxi driver who did not want to just drop us off but wanted to wait and tried to explain that there would be no buses or any way to get back to the hotel. It was a conflict because we didn't know how long we would be so we finally agreed that he would come back in 3 hours to pick us up. After 3 hours, as it was getting cold and windy I was praying that he would actually show and in fact he did. Of course his car broke down and needed a jump, the security guard at the park asked us if one of the workers could hitch a ride and we happened to be heading back to town as the cows were coming home for the day and had to keep stopping and shooing them off the road. Well, that's the real Peru and we were glad to have experienced it.
Moray is an interesting place. It was an Inca experimental farm, where a natural depression has been transformed in enormous terraces superimposed in concentric form with a shape of a great coliseum, achieving up to 150 meters in difference of height levels allowing for better and more diverse crops. We really enjoyed wandering around and there were very few other people there aside from Peruvian workers who appeared to be doing some excavation.
The next day we needed to get back to Cusco for our flight the following day. We determined that the best thing to do was take a taxi for the 72km ride. It was a pleasant drive and we were relieved to get back to a place with many ATM's and Pizza Parlors.
Peru is the most charming country. The people could not be kinder. All the school children run around in packs in their school uniforms. There are animals of every kind just running around everywhere. It is a country that seems to be proud to retain it's unique culture. People dress in the traditional style or otherwise in a formal way. The music you hear is traditional and beautiful. I really enjoyed our visit here.
