I left work early Friday afternoon to start me weekend in the Sacred Valley. The valley, as it is known includes the region to the north west of Cusco, starting at Pisac and ending at Machu Picchu (which I will do next weekend). It´s an area with a slightly warmer climate, lush lush green landscape, inviting mountains, and tons of Inca ruins and history, as the name implies. I must admit that before this weekend, I did not have a whole lot of interest in Ruins, in general. Tikal in Guatemala was quite impressive. The ruins we visited in Northern Peru were interesting, but not jaw dropping. The inca ruins in and around Cusco, are in a league of their own, that photos only begin to allude to. The craftsmanship that is evident and still very alive in these structures is simply amazing. It´s easy to joke about ruins, a pile of rocks over here, some moss covered structure over there.. but these sites are very well intact, and not because they are roped off and without human touch, rather it is only a testament to the very quality of their construction. The beveled edges of the rocks, the angular slopes, the tight fit, the multi points of complicated contact, intricate water channels still intact... the terraces, the size of soccer fields (well, not quite, but I think they would be good for kids) used for agricultural development... very well intact, not just the foundation, whole rooms, etc.
I arrived at Pisac first, a quick 45 mins by bus from Cusco. I quickly secured a room in the small main plaza, and set off for the 1 hour uphill climb to the ruins... past lots of terraces, winding around, and up what seemed like hundreds of stairs until I reached these 2 round lookouts.. continued up and discoved the gem.. 2 main complexes still very well intact, wonderful views of the town and the Urubamba river down below. I spent a few hours hiking around, and made it back down by nightfall. Spent the evening chatting with my 4 yr old friend, Inari, daughter of the senora who owned the hostal I was staying in. We played with water balloons, and chatted about all sorts of things. I ended up eating dinner there as well.. a mountain of rice, fries and chicken.. all very satisfying. I was in bed by 9pm, a very comfortable bed at that.
The next morning I had a wonderfully tasty omelette, juice, coffee combo at Ulrike´s cafe.. which sent me on my way to Urubamba, another hour down the valley. Urubamba was much bigger than the one plaza town of Pisac, and I actually had difficultly finding a hostal.. not really, I just wasnt in tourist territory, but it all worked out, and I saw the town in the process. By 1130 I was on a minibus to Ollantaytambo, 30mins more down the road. The central plaza reminded me of Pisac, small and tourist driven. The ruins were visible once you lifted your head and panned up. I made my way over, proudly got my tourist ticket stamped, and started the ascent up more stairs, of course. more terraces, more beautiful incastonework and signature doorways.. the postcard image of the 6 monolithic stones side by side... it was starting to drizzle, but I kept heading up up up, and around the corner away from the groups who were filtering in. I followed a train around the backside of the ruins, where there were great views of the town, and the agricultural patterns of crops below. Eventually I came back around, but all the way above, a nice eagles view of the ruins and the city, without anyone knowing I was there.. I could spy down below. The rain was nice, but started to pick up, and I made my way down and around to other side, where I discovered this cute 2 story inca house? I ducked inside and stayed dry for a few minutes before heading down a stairway through more terraces. Once on firm ground, I ate lunch, and decided to walk up the moutain on the other side of town. The town itself was quite precious... the only inca settlement still inhabited in peru, it´s stonework very well intact. One interesting feature is that the houses are built as complexes called canchas, enclousures housing many people, with one main doorway to the street. This makes for very long wall structures along each block, occasionally you get the chance to peak inside. This was very visible from my upper perch.... Mid afternoon, I decided to leave and make a stop on the way back to Urubamaba. I had read about the Salineras, salt pans-terraces, still in use today, and it sounded interesting. I took the bus to Tarabamba, asked everyone I saw along the way, which was only a handful of people, and eventually I was on a very straighfoward but uphill climb to salineras. 30 minutes of fast walking, bc I was up against the sunset, I arrived. From a distance they almost appreared like shantyhouses built on a hill, but upon closer look, they were well-defined quadratic structures, the sun slowly evaporating the water and leaving behind salt. A small shack revealed a moutain of unbagged salt, surrounded by bags of work already done. I poked around, took pictures, and scurried back down toward the road to catch a bus back to Urubamba.... that night, had a nice hot shower, and ate a good cuarto de pollo dinner. Had a drink at the muse too (original in san blas), chatted with the owner, a nice young hip woman, and was in bed by 9pm, once again.
That night, I was awoken at midnight by strange loud noises coming from the adjacent room. What transpired over the next 3 hours was a dreamlike spanish lang version of a david lynch film. I was enthralled, and creeped out, wanting to fall back asleep, but also wanting to put together some pieces of what could be happening next door. What at first I thought was some type of domestic dispute, turned into drunken nonsense, quarells betwen a young child´s voice, maybe 13, and a much older woman, maybe her mom, maybe not... por que te amo, mirame, eschucame, puta madre..anyway, screaming, heavy breathing, pacing, kicking, all within a space no more than 10 ft by 10ft... and on and on. Eventually we all fell asleep, and the next morning I never caught a glimpse of the inhabitants... left to my imagination, I guess.
Sunday morning, I meet up with Yovanna and her boyfriend Jenner who has a soccer game outside of Urubamba. We get a fabulous combo juice shake at the market and mototaxi our way to the field. Turns out his team didn´t show up, so they forfeit and play for fun. Meanwhile, Yovanna and I return to Salinera, bc it´s closeby, and she needs the excercise, and has neverbeen. This time around, we are not pressed for time, and I realize there is a whole other section I missed yesterday... take more photos, and head back to Uru for lunch, beers, and more walking. On our way back to Cusco, we stop in Chinchero, a small town, with an old church, surprise, some ruins, a market.... walk around, and pack in a taxi back to Cusco by 5pm. The drive back through the valley via chinchero is much more magnificent than coming in through Pisac.. the lush green fields in the foreground, surrounded by snowcovered mountains was quite a treat. 6pm back in Cusco, ahhh, it feels good to be back, and seemed like I was away for much longer than a weekend. Happy to continue feasting on the block of cheese in the frige.. take a predicatably hot shower, and not hear unexpected noises at night...
