Ollantaytambo ruins & town
Well, we’ve got one day until our Inca Trail adventures begin, and after yesterday’s haul up to the magnificent ruins at Pisac, we’re hoping the ruins of Ollantaytambo don’t require too much exertion!
We’re in luck – comparitively! From our hotel ruin (sorry, room, the building work outside reminded us of a ruin) we can see the Inca fortress above us, and it ain’t as far as Pisac.
After an interesting breakfast where we thought we’d got two heads from the looks we got (what is it with ‘tourists’ who appear to have never seen others wearing walking gear?), we set off up into town and to the market place where the traders were getting ready to ply their wares to yet more coach loads destined to arrive later on. Here Em felt poorly so we sat for a while and watched the activity, before getting out the tourist tickets bought in Cusco (great value for the price if you’re prepared to explore Cusco and the Sacred Valley) and entering the ruins.
Sixteen great terraces swept above us towards the ruins, and the slog began all over again. Not only was it reasonably early in the morning, so the temperature was good, but the crowds on their way from Cusco hadn’t got anywhere near Ollantaytambo yet, and so we once again had the place pretty much to ourselves.
There’s a spellbinding ‘wall’ at the ruins comprising six slabs of carved granite with much smaller inserts dividing each of them – placed there to counteract the effects of the frequent earthquakes that beset these parts, and they’ve obviously worked after all this time. Looking carefully there were etchings to be deciphered on this wall, but they were faded and all that was left of a once great Inca monolith to the deities they worshipped – the Spanish removed much of this fine work in their obsession to destroy all that was not Catholic.
Em was feeling “relaxed”, so decided not to wander around the other stepped buildings above this wall. Instead she spent a happy hour admiring the truly stupendous views all around these ruins; hillsides that literally rocketed from the valley floor to thousands of feet above us, occasional glimpses of snow capped Mt Veronica further down the valley, the odd train making its way from Cusco to Machu Picchu with clean smelling visitors, and some yellow coloured feathery friends who delighted in flitting from ruined rock to ruined rock, stopping every so often for a quick drink in one of the puddles left from last night’s downpour.
Eug climbed a little higher to the residences above the main fort, before traversing the hillside along a narrow path to yet more impressive terracing and a different view of the main site.
By this time there were signs of the site becoming busier – reds, yellows and blues of jackets clashing badly with the gentle red hues of the granite constructions, and it was time to get back down to the market square.
(Side note – what is it with people and courtesy these days?? On our way down we gave way to numerous people climbing upwards and received just one Gracias, even though we clearly made the effort to let them pass and could have easily continued our downward descent at their inconvenience – grrrrr!).
Back in the main square and it was time for a pizza and cervesa – just as the rain came down, very good timing! Ollantaytambo is one of the smallest places we’ve been to in Peru, at least for any period of time, and it was great fun watching from our restaurant balcony vantage point the activities of the square below us. Little boys playing with the simplest of toys such as sticks with a string attached to a toy car or truck which got pulled around, mainly on the vehicle’s roof, or alternatively the great game of “kick the empty plastic bottle around”, which has no rules other than to make sure you kick it as far as possible over the cobbled streets and hope the local dog population don’t think you’re playing with them!
Little boys on impossibly large tricycles attempted to peddle their way from one shop to another with yet more impossibly large loads of drinks stacked high in the baskets in front of them. The odd truck passing through the town with huge piles of maize gathered in the morning and destined for the market, with the workers crashed out on top of the crops for all the world looking as if they were lounging together on some sort of gigantic mattress. And two dogs, who made a nuisance of themselves by attempting to become best friends with the other diners below us on the edge of the square. Brilliant!
Since we would have no chance between now and six days away to get cash for emergencies, porter tipping and other things, Eug decided to go to the nearest town with an ATM, Urumbamba, 11 or so miles away. This was also a good time to escape since bus after bus coughed its way into the tiny square and spewed out well dressed tourists who were immediately accosted with calls of “agua”, “Coca Caloa”, “Fanta” and the like from the locals who’d magically appeared from almost nowhere.
Eug cheated and jumped a cab there, but played “bus driver’s helper” on the way back, opening the tightly packed Colectivo’s door from time to time to let people on and off. He didn’t have much choice really, since again it was either do this or a) fall out of the vehicle when the door opened, or b) be trampled in the rush to get on and off. Unfortunately for the local guy who was sat opposite the doorway Eug’s heavy walking boots strayed a little too close to his open sandals, and the noise of pain that was uttered cannot be repeated here!
From the drop off point in the square a quick glance upwards showed a large army of human ants in carnival costume toiling up through the sixteen terraces and pouring all over the fortress ruins – oh how lucky were we to be there in the morning!
Tomorrow is the big day, the start of the Inca Trail, 25 miles or so, a climb to almost 14,000 feet, and Machu Picchu at the end. Let’s hope the lungs can take it and the weather stays good.
Tags: Peruvian tales
mihai