Sacred Valley

Our second day in Cusco we booked a tour to the Sacred Valley, a place with several Inca ruins. We figured it would be a good way to build up to Machu Picchu. The tour bus picked us up almost an hour late at San Francisco Plaza, near our hostel and in our tour were mainly South Americans, and a lot of Brazilians. We were the only two that needed the English translation. First off, I have to say that we were not really happy with the tour because they jam-packed too many places and things into a day and really did not give us enough time to enjoy the sights and sounds of the beautiful places were were visiting. The other problem was that half of the people on our tour had a train to catch to Aguas Calientes, the resort town near Machu Picchu and so everything had to be on schedule for them to catch their train. I guess we should consider ourselves lucky because this is the only tour we have done where we really felt this way.

The Incas were conquerors and the expansion of their empire happened rapidly. Every city in their empire was designed with intelligence and creativity, all at high altitude so that they were aware of the happenings below. Each city was built to resemble sacred animals in their culture such as the puma, condor and snake. It is really amazing when your guide shows you an aerial picture of a site and you can see how the city resembles a certain animal.

Pisac, our first stop is a lush agricultural town with a Sunday market that attracts many travelers from Cusco. It is surrounded by the valley and overlooking it, an ancient Inca city. Nearly half of the city was destroyed by the Spanish and later reconstructed. The ruins are divided into different regions, one of the highlights being the Temple of the Sun. At the temple, we even saw a symbol of a pre-Inca civilization that controlled the area, which we recognized from our trip to Tiwanaku in La Paz.

Our next stop was Ollantaytambo, built to resemble a llama, an animal that was respected by the Inca culture. The Inca Emperor, Pachacuti rebuilt this city with extensive terraces, each elevation allowing for different micro-climates and allowing them to grow a variety of potatoes and corn, their main food source. As you are climbing the multitude of stairs to get to the top of this site, you realize that Incas must have been in good shape. All these stairs at these crazy altitudes, there could be no other outcome! However, the view of the valley from the top and the jutting rocks of the mountains is beautiful and worth the climb. The Incas also built granaries into the mountains, shaped like arches, for storing their crops (you see it in the photo above). Also if you follow the contours of the mountain, you can see the face of Wiracochan, the messenger to the creator god. Amazingly, on June 21, the day of the winter solstice, the sun shines directly on this spot and lights up the face of Wiracochan.

We stopped for lunch at a buffet and afterwards were taken to artisan shop where they make textiles using the traditional Quechuan methods. First, an elderly Quechua lady serenaded us with a song about her young days in her high-pitched voice, which is what the language sounds like to us. Then a young girl showed us the materials they used to make the fabrics and the natural herbs, plants and products they used for dyes and even make-up.

In Chinchero, our final stop, we visited the a beautiful church built upon the ruins of the an Inca temple. Yet another example of how a conquering nation always tries to destroy the history of the people that lived there before. The foundation of the church is the original Inca structure, still in tact. We were not allowed to take photos of the interior of the church but it was stunning. All the art on the ceilings and walls done with natural materials and by hand. Our guide explained to us how even in the paintings, the Quechuan artists incorporated symbols of their faith with the one forced on them. We watched the sunset from the courtyard of this church and then headed back to Cusco. Ramanan and I both regretted that we didn’t visit these sites on our own so that we could have spent more time there but I am glad that we had the chance to see these beautiful places.