The sacred valley of the Incas, an easy day trip from Cusco, and one wrth making. Unfortunatley Pete was ill, so I made the visit on my own. The thing that is so good about this tour is that some of the villages - Ollantaytambo and Chinchero- are built on the original Inca foundations, and so rather than going to see empty ruins, you get to see a living, breathing relic fro Inca times. In these places, as in Cusco, the Inca religion and Catholicism have almost blended together to the extent that there are Inca symbols present in the catholic churches paintings and decorations. And this has been sustaineed through the Spanish Inquisition - some feat!
We visited the ruins at Pisac, as well as the Pisac market, but the highlight for me was the visits to Ollantaytambo and Chincero, these places are incredible. Especially as the Inca religion is still practiced and Spanish is the second language after Qwecha. I am amazed that these places have endured.
On the bus ride back to Cusco, the driver and guide had the radio (football) on. The Cusco team was playing a Bolivian team in a match in Cusco. The Cusco team won 5 - 1, and the bus ride was punctuated by the exclamation ¡Gooooooooooooooooooooool! Incedentially that was also the headline in the sports section of the paper the following morning!
