Tuesday 14.10.14 – Ollantaytambo to Cusco.

Awake a while before Suzie, who was sleeping soundly till 7.10. Was getting a bit worried about how to tackle waking her.

After a minimal breaky (felt sorry for the poor buggers heading off to walk, as the breaky was just some fluffy cereal and fruit, some ham and cheese and strange bread) we saw the grup off onto their bus for hike on Inca trail, then we walked up to the Ollantaytambo Ruins, just near the back of our hotel.

These ruins were built around the 1400’s, it was an unbelievable set of constructions. We saw agricultural terraces – most probably growing corn crops. Then climbed up many large rock steps to a temple area – where rocks of humungous size have been moved from a quarry over the other side of the valley and river, shaped, placed and connected to make doorways, walls, niches, places for offerings, ceremonial sites and some carvings. The ability of these guys to create such architecture is hard to explain.

Some niches in the walls, to the right the Agricultural
terraces.

Having a rest and and explanation at the base of
one of the terraces. Reni, Bruce and Suzie.

Looking down on the Temple of Water.

Just amazing construction, look
at the size of the rocks and the joins.
You can see some of the 'notches'
believed to have been used for lifting.

One of the doorways, these are only
middle sized blocks.

Just for perspective.

Niches higher up, in the smooth rock face. Thought
to be maybe used to place objects in, for storage, or
maybe decoration. They built around the natural rock.

Then we walked closer to the amazing storage houses, which had been built further up a valley on a really steep gradient. These were situated in this location to catch the wind, to aid ventilation. The houses were used to store grains/corns etc. The floor was lined with straw and white mint to reduce pests and disease.

The various styles of walls built were hard to believe. Some are a bit like rock fences at home with small rocks, gravel, some mortar and mud bricks on top. The most amazing are the stone walls etc, with no mortar, no gaps between the rocks and perfectly joined and interlocked together, also working around existing larger rocks if necessary. The blocks are HUGE and perfectly jigsawed together – very hard to explain/describe.

The reality is the experts still don’t know how the Inca’s did it. Some rocks weigh half a tonne to a tonne and have been lifted into place. Some rocks have knobs on them, which might have been used to lift them or pull them – like a handle, to get purchase on an otherwise smooth sided rock. No doubt their stonemasonry is second to none.

Looking down onto the terraces...the people give
some perspective. These developments were HUGE.

This is part of the Sacred Temple, the wall, made up
of 6 large stones, with small 'expansion gaps' filled
with perfectly fitted stone, once had carvings on it.

On the way down, we saw their Water temple which has a niche window looking up the valley and catches the sun on the June equinox and shines right onto a rock inside the building, they have also canalised the water and run it through their constructions, this temple had used a natural rock and carved a square canal into it to run the water. It looked awesome.

Water chanelled over an existing rock
that had a canal cut/carved into to it
to run the water across the rock and into
canals through the settlement.

The window looking up the valley
and through which the sun shines
on a particular day.

Us in front of the Water Temple.

Shot through the window.

We then dumped our gear in our van and headed back through the Sacred Valley and Urubamba, watching the world go by in awe, the Urubamba River, the railway, more Inca agricultural terraces, the snow/ice capped peaks of the Mountains of the Central Cordillera (part of the Andes.) With the snow capped peaks in the background the mountains in the foreground were covered in what looked like terraces or animal tracks right up to the peaks almost. Evidently some years ago a President offered land to the people and in a grab for land some tried to grow their area right up the sides of these mountains. They constructed their terraces, but eventually gave it away as it was just too difficult to work the area, get the produce down etc etc. The terraces are still very visible.

One of the many Tuk tuks in Urubamba and
Ollantaytambo.

Road, rail and river winding through the Sacred
Valley.

One of the snow capped ranges.

Another type of Tuk tuk, it had a different name I
can't recall, a hard cover rather than the heavy plastic
style.

A boot repairer working beside the road on the way
back to Cusco.

Typical steep street, you can see by the stairs in the
footpaths.

A woman carrying a whole swag of
Gladioli.

We checked back in at Awki’s Dream Hotel at 11.15, then Reni took us to a Silver factory and showroom. We were given an excellent overview of the process of making the jewellery, from the raw materials – silver, copper, gold, lapis lazuli, shells, obsidian and lots of other rocks I can’t recall, through to the making of rings and bracelets. The factory is a family affair and has been in the family for several generations. The father of the owner was on the balcony, he was 102. The factory employs approx. 40 people, and only sells at their factory showrooms. We had also been told about the Peruvian hairless dog (Perro Biringo), but were yet to see one, when in bounced “Boobies” their 5 month old Peruvian hairless dog, great to see one and we could even have a pat, if that’s what you do to animals without fur/hair, it was weird.

They had a gold and silver room and all jewellery was sold by weight – so we had a little spend, followed by a delicious late lunch at Café Morena.

The owner, giving us an overview
of the process.

Melting the silver and running into
a mould.

Boobies - their 5 month old
Peruvian Hairless Dog.

The only hair was on his face - and
sparse at that.

The Morena Café is owned by Luke, an Aussie from Sydney, whose wife is Peruvian and wanted to have her own family in Peru. So they moved over, in November, are living with her parents as is traditional here, had the baby in January and restaurant opened in February. He was lovely to talk with and we really enjoyed our shared Pork Sandwich and Apple Pie and icecream.

We finished a busy day with a guided tour of the Inka Museo. Learned lots of the history of Peru and how eventually many different cultures developed into the Incas, before the Spaniards came and conquered and colonialised all!

We paid money for this shot, there
are a smattering of folk in the streets
who have the lamb and will allow
pics for a Peso.

The cobbles are well worn and
shine in the light.

We met Bruce at 5.30 and headed for Centro Qosqo de Arte Native – a local music and dance folk show. We queued for almost an hour in cool winds (it’s weird here, when the sun is shining, its warm/hot, but when the sun goes/or standing in the shade, it’s cold.) The show started at 7.00, we’d had enough after an hour, very colourful and energetic dances were all starting to look a little the same. The orchestra was good, some interesting instruments.

Here we are with Bruce and his purchase, Suzie and
I in her purchases awaiting the show.

A phone shot of some of the action,
didn't manage any decent ones with
the little camera.

We walked for some way to find somewhere to eat, eventually settled on a divey looking café in the square, had an excellent meal, steaks and trout and Pisco Sour, with a great quinoa salad.

Walked home, well and truly ready for bed.