Sacred Valley tour

Kristof didn't miss too much the night he left. All of us were laying around trying to stay warm in the hostal that was absolutely freezing. The family that ran it was really nice and the location wasn't bad (even though no taxi could get there because of the stairs), but there was just no heat to be found in that place. I couldn't even get my washed clothes to dry. We brought things to a laundry service (very common for locals) just to make sure they would dry before we had to pack up again. Of course dinner had been at our favorite garlic bread place. The day after rafting we had a tour of the sacred valley booked. It was free from the guiding company we had used for most of our other tours. Yes, that is what happens when you spend a lot of money in one place. Expensive for us, but worth it considering the transportation complications in the country. It was the only way to see so much in such a short period of time. The last week was a bit more relaxed and much less planned out. (This was a disadvantage later.)

The sacred valley tour was your cliche 'fill a bus with tourists and show them things'. They even made purely shopping stops which I felt was a waste of time. Since we had already seen the ruins in Ollyan., the three of us wandered the town instead. At this point in the trip we actually thought we could have done better just staying in Cuzco. The day wasn't nearly as pretty as the first rafting day when we went through the exact same areas. And it was colder. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention one really interesting fact about Ollyan. earlier. We had learned that the way they got the large stone up to the ruins on the mtn side was by rolling them down the mtn on the other side of the valley, crossing the riverbed by damming the river on one fork, and then the other, and up the other side. Talk about a lot of work! The people had also designed the entire city in the shape of a corn cob in its husk. You can see it from an areal view. Our guide pointed it out in a book.


Back to the current day. The things that were really interesting were at the end of the tour. We got to see the ruins of Pisac which is one of the other very large sites. That is the first picture you see in this entry. Big, isn't it?

In the city of Chinchero they had a group of women demonstrate how they make wool items in their town. Each major region in Peru has their own style of handicrafts. When I bought items, I tried to buy a representation of the styles I liked best from different cities we were in. The wares in Chinchero were beautiful. But since it was all handmade, it was also pretty expensive. Here are some pictures from the demonstration. All the wool is from Alpaca (finest type of llama fur) and is naturally dyed to saturated colors.

The tour finished by going to the ruins of Chinchero and an even bigger market. The ruins were really pretty at night as dusk was setting in.