Friday 11th September
We were up and breakfasted by eight thirty, waiting outside the hotel for a pick up by Percy by nine. Maria appeared, walking up the hill to the hotel, and a few minutes later the car drove down the hill to meet us - pausing only briefly on the one-way street to let us alight. The destination was to be the Sacred Valley - and some of the ancient sites to be seen along it. We were off to the first of quite a few sights scheduled for today - Pisac.
On the way we stopped off at at Awana Kancha, which is a type of cooperative not far from Cusco. Here they keep various types of Llama and Alpaca - and a few Vicuna as well. They spin and dye the fleeces from these animals, and make various things, ranging from garments to pictures.
You could feed the animals - one reminded me that he was basically a camel when he had a go at spitting - don't know what I did to offend him. Luckily he missed. We had to buy something from the shop there, and so ended up with a very lovely spread for our bed at home. The handiwork was amazing - especially as the ladies seemed to work without any visible patterns - they just did things from memory.
From there we carried on to the village of Pisac, and the Inca ruins beyond. It was a long and tortuous road that led us to the ruins outside the village itself, but worth the trek.
From there we ventured back down to the village itself, to have a look at the colourful market. You can see from the car park that the ruins were popular. Roadside merchants here were trying to sell various goods. In the village we spotted a small guinea pig house outside a restaurant - we didn't know if they were there as a food item!
We continued along the Sacred Valley. We were heading for a lunch stop, but as we seemed to be driving right past where Yanette (the mother of our daughter's friend) lived in Calca, it seemed only fair that we stopped there for a little while to say hello and to look at her home.
After that we stopped for lunch close to the town of Urubamba, at a nice roadside restaurant which did a buffet lunch. We paused for about an hour, before continuing on our journey. There were Macaws wild in the gardens - very nice to see.
They next stop on our trip was Ollantaytambo - which is the remains of an Inca citadel. It was at the head of a valley with the town spread out before it. I was also amazingly windy! We climbed to the top - which, given the altitude, was no mean feat!
The 'buildings' on the sides of the mountains are granaries, where the Incas winnowed and stored their grain. It was easy to imagine that this citadel must have been pretty impregnable when it was originally built - it's still very impressive today!
Now we were quite worn out from a busy day we made our way back down the hill to the village itself to find Percy in the car. He was going to drop us off at the railway station so that we could catch our train to Aguas Calientes that evening, ready for our trip to Machu Picchu the next day. We arrived at the station in good time. In fact we had to wait for an hour and a half for the train to arrive. We said goodbye to Maria and Percy for the time being and sought sustenance of some type. K managed to find a seat in the buffet lounge area, whilst I wandered around (having bought us both some tea). We boarded the train after a while and set off at about six thirty for the hour and a half trip.
The train was clean and comfortable, with liveried staff and a drinks and snacks trolley which provided us with a coffee and a Peruvian grain bar - served in a curious paper wrapper. We arrived in Aguas Calientes at just gone eight o'clock to find that the train seemed to have stopped in the high street - right outside several restaurants! We joined the throng of people leaving the train onto the crowded street and looked for Ruth - who was to be our guide for the trip here. I spotted a lady holding a card with our name in the crowd and hailed her - she took us up the hill, through the empty market, and across the river to the hotel that I had previously booked - the Terrazas del Inca. We would be there for two nights.
Tomorrow we were off to Machu Picchu....
To be continued........
We were up and breakfasted by eight thirty, waiting outside the hotel for a pick up by Percy by nine. Maria appeared, walking up the hill to the hotel, and a few minutes later the car drove down the hill to meet us - pausing only briefly on the one-way street to let us alight. The destination was to be the Sacred Valley - and some of the ancient sites to be seen along it. We were off to the first of quite a few sights scheduled for today - Pisac.
On the way we stopped off at at Awana Kancha, which is a type of cooperative not far from Cusco. Here they keep various types of Llama and Alpaca - and a few Vicuna as well. They spin and dye the fleeces from these animals, and make various things, ranging from garments to pictures.
You could feed the animals - one reminded me that he was basically a camel when he had a go at spitting - don't know what I did to offend him. Luckily he missed. We had to buy something from the shop there, and so ended up with a very lovely spread for our bed at home. The handiwork was amazing - especially as the ladies seemed to work without any visible patterns - they just did things from memory.
From there we carried on to the village of Pisac, and the Inca ruins beyond. It was a long and tortuous road that led us to the ruins outside the village itself, but worth the trek.
From there we ventured back down to the village itself, to have a look at the colourful market. You can see from the car park that the ruins were popular. Roadside merchants here were trying to sell various goods. In the village we spotted a small guinea pig house outside a restaurant - we didn't know if they were there as a food item!
We continued along the Sacred Valley. We were heading for a lunch stop, but as we seemed to be driving right past where Yanette (the mother of our daughter's friend) lived in Calca, it seemed only fair that we stopped there for a little while to say hello and to look at her home.
After that we stopped for lunch close to the town of Urubamba, at a nice roadside restaurant which did a buffet lunch. We paused for about an hour, before continuing on our journey. There were Macaws wild in the gardens - very nice to see.
They next stop on our trip was Ollantaytambo - which is the remains of an Inca citadel. It was at the head of a valley with the town spread out before it. I was also amazingly windy! We climbed to the top - which, given the altitude, was no mean feat!
The 'buildings' on the sides of the mountains are granaries, where the Incas winnowed and stored their grain. It was easy to imagine that this citadel must have been pretty impregnable when it was originally built - it's still very impressive today!
Now we were quite worn out from a busy day we made our way back down the hill to the village itself to find Percy in the car. He was going to drop us off at the railway station so that we could catch our train to Aguas Calientes that evening, ready for our trip to Machu Picchu the next day. We arrived at the station in good time. In fact we had to wait for an hour and a half for the train to arrive. We said goodbye to Maria and Percy for the time being and sought sustenance of some type. K managed to find a seat in the buffet lounge area, whilst I wandered around (having bought us both some tea). We boarded the train after a while and set off at about six thirty for the hour and a half trip.
The train was clean and comfortable, with liveried staff and a drinks and snacks trolley which provided us with a coffee and a Peruvian grain bar - served in a curious paper wrapper. We arrived in Aguas Calientes at just gone eight o'clock to find that the train seemed to have stopped in the high street - right outside several restaurants! We joined the throng of people leaving the train onto the crowded street and looked for Ruth - who was to be our guide for the trip here. I spotted a lady holding a card with our name in the crowd and hailed her - she took us up the hill, through the empty market, and across the river to the hotel that I had previously booked - the Terrazas del Inca. We would be there for two nights.
Tomorrow we were off to Machu Picchu....
To be continued........
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