Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley
So after our trek, we decided to give the 4.30am start and 2 hour walk up to Machu Picchu a miss and instead caught a very expensive bus (US$12 return each) – having said that everything about Machu Picchu and its surroundings is expensive, from entrance to train.On entrance we headed up to the Caretakers Hut, where you get the classic postcard picure. As it was still early (7.30am) there were a lot of Inca Trail groups arriving. Some of their celebrations (i.e. a bottle of fizz) seemed a little over the top – they’d only spent 3 days walking, carrying a day pack and were fully supported (i.e. didn’t have to worry about water, where the next campsite was etc), which is why it isn’t for us and we took ourselves on our own adventure.
Anyway, back to Machu Picchu, after the classic postcard shot, we registered ourselves and headed up to Wayna Picchu – about a 45 minute climb. Hard work – especially at the top – which had lots of very narrow and steep steps – but the views back across the valley were worth the effort.
We basically spent the day wandering the ruins & soaking in the atmosphere. It was very different to Choquequirao, mainly because there are a lot more tourist and ruins, but I can’t say I prefer one over the other.
The next day saw us get the train to Ollantaytambo. We decided to base ourselves here for two nights to explore the Sacred Valley. Ollantaytambo is a nice place – the buildings around the main plaza are all set on old inca stone work.
That afternoon we sampled chicha (3-day fermented maize drink which doesn’t taste that good & comes in massive glasses) and generally relaxed after our busy last 10 days.
The next day we headed out to the Salinas, this involved getting a combi to Urubamba and walking back along the railway track to find a bridge across the Urubamba and a path to over 5000 inca salt pans. They were an impressive sight sat high in a valley.
We had thought to walk onto Maras and Moray (3 inca circle terraces), but after taking the wrong path out of Salinas (we should have gone under the arch not along the road) we decided not to, as we didn’t know what time the last bus from Maras was at and didn’t want to get stuck!
The next day we visited two sets of ruins, those of Ollantaytambo, which have an impressive sun temple, and Pisac – a fortess high on a mountian, surrounded by terraces. The walk up to Pisac from town took about 45 minutes of up, up and more up – but it put the ruins and their place on the mountainside in context. The site at Pisac was more extensive than we realised and we didn’t visit all of it as we were feeling a little ruined out!
We are now back in Cusco, having spent the morning visiting yet more ruins – Sacsaywaman and Q’enko. Sacsaywaman was impressive, with some very large stones and good joins.
We’d expected the join/stone work at Machu Picchu to be better than it was – it was only in the temples that we saw the famous inca masonary.
Tags: Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, Peru, Pisac, Sacred Valley, Travel
Jenni
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