Sacred Valley, Cusco, Peru

  Sacred Valley, Cusco, Peru Wednesday, March 30, 2016

A big bus collected about 20 of us from around the central area and headed off in the direction of Pisac - our first stop. Our guide today is Vladimir - Peruvian - not Russian. Here we stopped at a silver 'factory' where they made jewellery from locally mined silver. Now apparently, this is the only place in the world (PIsac we mean - not this factory) where they make 950 grade silver pieces. Most ladies already know 925 it the standard grade but they say, the silver here is just such good quality it makes it more pure. And more expensive of course. Interesting to watch though. Next stop high up above the town and the mine was the Pisac Inca ruins. Now we never even knew this existed until we pulled up in the bus and it was beautiful.We had had to buy a multi site entrance ticket for 130 s/. each (£26) which seemed pretty steep and this was the first place we could use it. We walked passed all the native stall holders and climbed to the top of the ruins. This was our first real climb at altitude and it was tough. It is easy to under estimate the difficulties you will experience when trying to do anything at altitude when it restricts your oxygen intake so much. But we made it and the views were beautiful. Bryan was especially impressed with the huge terraces they had built into the mountainside, so they could grow crops on them. Vlad had told us to be back at the bus for 11:40 and Jody asked Bryan to check the time. Oh we've still got 10 minutes yet he said. So we browsed the stalls near the coach park, took time to get a freshly squeezed orange juice and look around a bit.Then we noticed the bus was nowhere to be seen. We started walking very quickly down the hill trying to find it and there it was - right at the bottom about to leave. Upon checking the time again with Bryan, he said it was 11:55 but had thought Vlad said 12! We were so lucky as just after we got on, the bus left - leaving without other passengers (whom had obviously also misheard the time). Vlad made it quite clear we had to be on time or we would be stranded next time. Whoops! Next on the itinerary was Urabamba. Taking it's name from the river that flows through the sacred valley, this town sits lower down than Pisac with the river running through it. The nice people in Vertigo Travel had told us to make sure we went into Maizel for lunch as the tour uses 2 restaurants and Maizel is the best. He even wrote it on our ticket for us.Vlad called out the names of the people to get off at Maizel saying only possible this restaurant with a reservation and he only had reservations for 4 people. - our name wasn't one of the ones he called out. So like we do - we got off anyway and we were very glad we did. A huge buffet beckoned and the food was wonderful and it was so good to find great salads - we haven't had a decent salad in ages. We had nice pan pipe music to accompany our meal and we were stuffed. But we weren't going to be late for the bus so eventually it was time to move and find Vlad further down the road at the other restaurant. Next stop; Ollantaytambo. More Inca ruins. Jody was beginning to get a headache by now, brought on by moving around at altitude and decided not to go all the way to the top. Instead she stayed about a third of the way up, where all the tour guides stop with their groups to tell them about the place, and sat in on a talk in Spanish and one in English.Meanwhile, Bryan went to the top with the others from the bus that had chosen to go to the top and over the ridge, down the other side. We eventually found each other again at the bottom and took a few minutes to walk around the ruins at ground level. Bryan was very impressed with the water management systems they had built to move water to wherever it was needed. Then we found the chocolate cafe and stopped for a hot chocolate made with real melted chocolate. Delicious! We were first to the bus this time - that bus is never going to leave without us! At this point about half the group were to stay behind anyway as they were catching the train from here up to Machu Picchu.So we grabbed the front seats and settled back to watch the beautiful scenery on the drive home. It was here that a young Peruvian chap got on the bus and began handing out samples of an alcoholic drink. It was very nice and like aniseed. The chap said it had properties in it to help with altitude sickness like muña and cocoa leaf. Always up for medicine like this we bought a lovely decorated bottle for £4. Bargain! Cheaper than a UK prescription for sure - and tasted nicer. However, we decided to keep it to take it to Rainbow Mountain with us in a couple of weeks time. our next stop was a bit unexpected. The town of Chinchero. This turned out to be our favourite stop of the day. To get there we went a different way from which we had come and climbed high up above the town of Urabamba again. The scenery up here was so so beautiful and you couldn't take your eyes off the views. Everywhere we have been in Peru has been so beautiful but this was something else. Entirely different too. Lots of fields with people farming, tending their pigs or walking their donkey's with their harvest for the day on their backs.Such a slow, natural pace of life it was like stepping back in time too. We eventually arrived at another set of ruins, These were not so impressive but as it was now sunset they looked beautiful in the evening glow. This place also has a bit of sad story. One of the first places to be raided by the Spanish, Chinchero was captured and the local people forced to demolish their own sacred places and buildings, and build the Spanish church on top of the ruins. The people were also contained and not allowed to travel or move away for fear they would send word to other cities about what was happening. The effect of this containment meant that the indigenous people did not have families outside of their own people so the culture, traditions and indigenous bloodline was kept quite pure.This has been kept alive today and the people of Chinchero have their own language and customs which differ a lot from other indigenous groups. Vlad led us to a home/shop where a group of these people lived today. Today they share the secrets of their process for dyeing alpaca wool and how they get so many colours. They also had a great sense of humour. The young girl showed us how they made natural lipstick out of the cochineal beetle which lives on cactus growing everywhere here. "Will last 24 hours" she said "or 1,000 kisses!" Then showing us a llama bone, she asked us all if we knew what it was. No's from all around so she told us it was a bone from the last tourist who didn't buy anything! Funny girl!Actually we liked them so much that Bryan decided it was finally time to give in and buy a llama jumper (a jumper with llamas on it). We always like to buy things from nice people and where we have seen things being made. It makes us feel like our money is going straight to the people and not some well off business tycoon who owns a hundred shops. He settled on a cardigan and to test it, Jody tried the cuddle factor and it passed. Not to take her at her word though, Bryan wanted to try the cuddle factor on the old lady trying to sell it to him. She was VERY happy to oblige with a giggle. Although she nearly stabbed him with the big needle she was holding! We had had a lovely time here and as a parting gift we were awarded by a finger puppet each from the old lady. Bryan got a snail and Jody an alpaca. Very sweet. This was a lovely ending to what had been a very long and busy day. We shall remember the lovely people of Chinchero for a very long time.