I had forgotten that it got light an hour earlier here, so our 5:45 get up was more pleasant than anticipated. An hour later we were waiting to be collected for our day trip, and half an hour later than that we finally left the city in our minivan. One thing I noticed on our journey (and this is really sad) is the first evidence of rebar safety capping! Ok, so there aren't any specific caps, but I saw a few improvisations with plastic bottles and buckets, which seemed to be working fairly well (the former better than the latter). On the subject of rebar, I've found two more uses for it - window decoration and a hat stand!
Our first stop was a village called Chinchero. Here there was evidence of ceremonial and functional inca structures, as well as a very ornate Catholic church. The village and church were situated as such in order to make use of a a clean water source. We had bought a combined ticket for the day (four sights, 70 soles) and although Chinchero wasn't top of our list to visit, did enjoy walking around it.
Next and very nearby (albeit our driver had to ask for directions and make a u-turrn - worrying) was Moray. This sight shows evidence of ancient terraced farming practices. Although we had already seen a few of these, Moray was particularly impressive as the terraces were in concentric circles, and scaled to quite a height! The top levels are more suited to certain plants, and the bottom to others. Access is provided down the terraces by small stone steps protruding from the retaining walls, and the system is self-draining. At Moray there were three sets of circles for us to see, with a great glacial backdrop.
Onwards from Moray, and really noticing the surprisingly hot weather now, we went to Salineras. These are a set of salt terraces, each with a salt "pond", where the natural salt water was mixed by hand with clay, then left to evaporate to give salt crystals. On the way down we were able to taste the different types of salt, and learn about the processes. Once down, it really was an impressive valley of terraces, not something I've seen before.
Next stop was lunch - for most of the group consisting of a buffet. I was feeling quite ill at this point (a combination of hot weather and lunchtime in Peru it seems) so we ducked out of the buffet and for half the price got half a chicken, a large portion of fries and a great unlimited salad bar. Perfect if you were hungry (thankfully Peter was - we seemed to have swapped roles) and great value. I enjoyed the salad but did feel a little rushed as we had just 15 minutes to get back to the bus. What we hadn't factored in was that these were 15 Peruvian minutes, and actually, the bus didn't leave for another 55 minutes after that! Frustrating (and worrying as we temporarily thought they may have vanished without us....).
Still heading away from Cusco, after half an hour or so we reached Ollantaytambo. This was what I was looking forward to least from the pictures (which seemed to be of four stone slabs and little else) but actually, these slabs were set on the top of an impressive set of terraces, which we climbed. It was very busy here as our slow lunch allowed the tourist trail to catch up with us, but we could appreciate the scale of the construction, and also observe the "face" carved into the rock face on the opposing valley. There were also small dents in the terrace faces, which echoed as I spoke into them. These were apparently used to communicate with other inca communities - very interesting.
Leaving Ollantaytambo (where we will return to in just under a week) we set off an the long journey to Pisac. Thankfully for me, the road became flatter and straighter and I finally started to feel less ill! At Pisac the bus climbed up the slope behind the town and stopped in a layby halfway up. From here we could see the terraces on the opposite side, as well as a number of caves. These caves were used as cemeteries for inca mummies. The terraces were used for the less gruesome purpose of farming - by whole communities - with the Inca philosophy of "share, work, love and knowledge" keeping everyone together. Unfortunately (and from our suspicion, due to the very long and odd lunch) we were too late to enter the sight itself, so we returned to Cusco, arriving for just before 19:00.
At 19:00 we arrived at the Salkantay Trekking office for our briefing for tomorrow's trek. Here they told us some key information about the route, and provided us with a duffle bag to pack for the horses. When we got back to our hostel, we packed these bags (guessing at the 7kg allowance as we do not have scales). I also spotted that the hostel had a book exchange which was great as I had just finished my book. I had also very strangely acquired a book in my luggage somewhere on the flight between La Paz and Cusco. I could see that someone had gone through my luggage but found it really bizarre that they had put something in! Anyway, the silver lining was that I had another book to exchange (I couldn't understand the language of the one I had obtained) and hence read.
Our first stop was a village called Chinchero. Here there was evidence of ceremonial and functional inca structures, as well as a very ornate Catholic church. The village and church were situated as such in order to make use of a a clean water source. We had bought a combined ticket for the day (four sights, 70 soles) and although Chinchero wasn't top of our list to visit, did enjoy walking around it.
Next and very nearby (albeit our driver had to ask for directions and make a u-turrn - worrying) was Moray. This sight shows evidence of ancient terraced farming practices. Although we had already seen a few of these, Moray was particularly impressive as the terraces were in concentric circles, and scaled to quite a height! The top levels are more suited to certain plants, and the bottom to others. Access is provided down the terraces by small stone steps protruding from the retaining walls, and the system is self-draining. At Moray there were three sets of circles for us to see, with a great glacial backdrop.
Onwards from Moray, and really noticing the surprisingly hot weather now, we went to Salineras. These are a set of salt terraces, each with a salt "pond", where the natural salt water was mixed by hand with clay, then left to evaporate to give salt crystals. On the way down we were able to taste the different types of salt, and learn about the processes. Once down, it really was an impressive valley of terraces, not something I've seen before.
Next stop was lunch - for most of the group consisting of a buffet. I was feeling quite ill at this point (a combination of hot weather and lunchtime in Peru it seems) so we ducked out of the buffet and for half the price got half a chicken, a large portion of fries and a great unlimited salad bar. Perfect if you were hungry (thankfully Peter was - we seemed to have swapped roles) and great value. I enjoyed the salad but did feel a little rushed as we had just 15 minutes to get back to the bus. What we hadn't factored in was that these were 15 Peruvian minutes, and actually, the bus didn't leave for another 55 minutes after that! Frustrating (and worrying as we temporarily thought they may have vanished without us....).
Still heading away from Cusco, after half an hour or so we reached Ollantaytambo. This was what I was looking forward to least from the pictures (which seemed to be of four stone slabs and little else) but actually, these slabs were set on the top of an impressive set of terraces, which we climbed. It was very busy here as our slow lunch allowed the tourist trail to catch up with us, but we could appreciate the scale of the construction, and also observe the "face" carved into the rock face on the opposing valley. There were also small dents in the terrace faces, which echoed as I spoke into them. These were apparently used to communicate with other inca communities - very interesting.
Leaving Ollantaytambo (where we will return to in just under a week) we set off an the long journey to Pisac. Thankfully for me, the road became flatter and straighter and I finally started to feel less ill! At Pisac the bus climbed up the slope behind the town and stopped in a layby halfway up. From here we could see the terraces on the opposite side, as well as a number of caves. These caves were used as cemeteries for inca mummies. The terraces were used for the less gruesome purpose of farming - by whole communities - with the Inca philosophy of "share, work, love and knowledge" keeping everyone together. Unfortunately (and from our suspicion, due to the very long and odd lunch) we were too late to enter the sight itself, so we returned to Cusco, arriving for just before 19:00.
At 19:00 we arrived at the Salkantay Trekking office for our briefing for tomorrow's trek. Here they told us some key information about the route, and provided us with a duffle bag to pack for the horses. When we got back to our hostel, we packed these bags (guessing at the 7kg allowance as we do not have scales). I also spotted that the hostel had a book exchange which was great as I had just finished my book. I had also very strangely acquired a book in my luggage somewhere on the flight between La Paz and Cusco. I could see that someone had gone through my luggage but found it really bizarre that they had put something in! Anyway, the silver lining was that I had another book to exchange (I couldn't understand the language of the one I had obtained) and hence read.
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