In the Sacred Valley, Part 2

Mike and I went into our next adventure, climbing the Inca granaries, or Pinkuylluna Mountain, thinking it would be good practice for Machu Picchu.  And in a way it was.

Our friends from Orlando told us that you had to go through someone's backyard in order to get there, so we did some guess work with trying to find it.  Luckily, we had an awesome guide helping us.  Here she is in all her furry glory:

Puppy!

It was the funniest thing.  Mike and I were walking down a side street, trying to find the entrance to this place, when this dog just decided to follow us.  Since she wasn't being aggressive, we decided to let her come with us.  We thought that as soon as we started our climb, she'd go home.  But nope.  The little gal stuck with us the entire way up.  She was in better shape than either Mike or I.  She would run ahead of us and then come back if we were taking too long.

When we looked up at the ruins above us, I couldn't decide if the trek up was going to be difficult or not.  Turns out it wasn't.  But the altitude that made it somewhat hard.  I was taking video of us walking up and you can hear me panting.  Our hearts were racing, but we made it to the top.  And the view was amazing.  Because we went up so early, we were able to get awesome pictures of the fortress without a lot of people on it.

Our view from the top.

We hung out at the top for awhile and then decided to head back.  Our furry guide left us about halfway down because apparently we were going too slow for her liking.  She went down with another group that was moving faster than we were.  Mike said it was because she knew we didn't need her help.  After we got back into town, we grabbed our bags and hung out at a cafe for a little while since we had time to kill before our train left.

Mike and I lucked out with our train seats.  Since we had booked them so early, we got to sit in the very front of the first car, meaning that we got a side view and a massive front view since the conductor's cabin was to the right of us.  We were both already very excited for the train ride, and being up front made it that much better.

View from the train.

We arrived in Aguas Calentes around 5:30 and proceeded to check in to our freaking sweet hotel.  We staid in a tree house.  Yep, a tree house.  It. Was. AWESOME!  We were upgraded to a suite, which meant that we had a two-story tree house.  The upstairs is where we slept and it had a killer view of the mountains.  We could see a tiny bit of Machu Picchu.  Our reservation also came with dinner, so we got to eat at the amazing on-site restaurant.  I had cuy for dinner.  Google it.  I won't ruin the surprise for you guys.

Sadly, half way through dinner, Mike started to not feel so great.  He stuck around for as long as he could, then went upstairs to sleep.  Since we were going to be getting up at 5:15 to be at the bus for Machu Picchu at 6, we needed to get all the sleep we could.  Up next, we tackle Machu Picchu at an ungodly hour.

In the Sacred Valley, Part I

I'm a few days behind on posts, mainly because we didn't take our computer to the Sacred Valley/Machu Picchu.  So let's pick up where I left off.

During our last full morning in Cusco, we got up to see a few things before we left for the Sacred Valley.  We started at Hathun Rumiyoq, one of the main streets in ancient Cusco.  It took a little while for us to find it because some roads around it were closed off.  But it was worth finding.  The Inca stonework is impressive and the size of the stones that were used is absolutely jaw dropping.  To think that people carved these stones so they would fit perfectly to the ones around it is impressive.  I don't think that I've fully wrapped my mind around the amount of work that went into making this wall.

To give you some perspective, Mike is 6'1.
And the wall also went down.

Our next stop that morning was the Mercado Central. If you're in Cusco, it is worth the visit. One of the first things you see in the market is rows of women working at juice stands, waving menus at people walking by, trying to lure them into purchasing a glass of juice from them.  Mike and I made a mental note to come back.

The juice stands.

We walked around and looked at all the different products that were being sold.  There was just about everything for sale there,  They had cat food, clothes, and fresh meat and veggies, just to name a few.  It was colorful and jammed packed full of people.  I really liked that there were mostly locals there.  And since it was about lunchtime, there were a lot of people crowding the stalls that served a hot meal.  We picked one that was packed with people, sat down, and had a massive bowl of hen soup.  We were lucky enough to get seats at the counter.  There were rows of benches behind the counter so that many people could eat there.  Our soup was really good, but we defiantly got ripped off by the women running the stall because we were tourists.  Granted, our meal ended up being about $6 for the two of us but it really rubbed Mike the wrong way.  But the lesson we learned was to eat somewhere with posted prices.  As we were walking out of the market, we decided to get some juice before we left.  Nothing beats fresh juice.  It was a nice way to end our market adventure.

One of the stalls serving a hot meal.

Then it was off to the Sacred Valley, or more specifically, Ollyantatambo.  Ollyantatambo was built as an Inca administrative center.  It was also the gateway for the Inca's to the Amazonian portion of their empire.  The city was the only one to resist Spanish attacks.

We took a taxi from Cusco to Ollyantatambo.  Before your eyeballs pop completely out of your head, it only cost about $30 to make the hour and a half drive.  It was a beautiful drive.  The Andes are absolutely amazing.  Mike and I kept saying "wow" every time we turned a corner.

This picture doesn't even begin to do it justice.

I'm glad we made to drive.  We were able to see where the locals in Cusco live, the farms and the people working in them, and what other towns in Peru look like.  Not surprisingly, there is a lot of poverty.  What was really interesting to me is that the women working in the fields wore traditional Andean clothing.

Around 3:00, we arrived in Ollyantatambo.  We checked into our hotel, which was surprisingly hard to find, and then decided to go explore.  On the edge of the Plaza Manay Raquy, which is filled with stalls of women selling souvenirs, there is a massive Inca fortress that towers over the city.  We wanted to climb up it, but it was not cheap.  For whatever reason, you couldn't buy a ticket for just that one site but rather a pass to multiple attractions in the Sacred Valley.  So we turned around and left.

The fortress.

Later that night, after dinner, we went to a bar for a pisco sour.  While we were there, we met a couple from Orlando and one pisco sour turned into three.  Over the course of these pisco sours, we learned that the other set of ruins we saw towering over the city were free to climb.  Now three pisco sours doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're close to 9,200 feet above sea level, alcohol hits you hard.  We decided to call it a night so that we could get up the next morning to climb it.

My next post will focus on our morning climb, our absolutely adorable guide, and our train ride to Augas Calients, the jumping off point for Machu Picchu.