Time for another Peru flashback…From Cusco, we took a side trip to the Sacred Valley area. Our bus pulled over en route at a small roadside market, and we saw this woman working on a traditional weaving (she had just started, but you can see it at the bottom)—the patterns are incredibly intricate and time consuming.
We actually went to a textile museum when we got back to Cusco and were able to see examples of the various types of patterns from the different regions of the country. The “sacred” part of the Sacred Valley is the Urubamba River, which winds its way through the mountains. Eventually, it leads to the Amazon, and everything in the valley centers around it.
The way these tours work is that several companies outsource to one bus/tour guide, so while you ride around with many other people, you often have different individual activities/stops planned. For example, everyone else on this tour got out at a hotel for lunch, but our company had booked us somewhere else. We weren’t worried, as that’s just how it works, but our tour guide was quite concerned that we felt left out. “Don’t be sad, my friends,” he said. “The place you are going is very nice—be happy!”
He was right. The driver dropped us off at a villa-like building near the river, and we had one of our best lunches of the trip. While we aren’t always the biggest fans of buffets, this one was incredible, and we were able to try a wide variety of Peruvian dishes. This is where Brian discovered carpaccio (thinly sliced raw meat), and he ordered it at several successive meals. We also had complimentary pisco sours here, which we all enjoyed.
After lunch, we had some time to kill before the bus returned, so we went down and sat by the river. 
Brian took this photo of a flower there, but I didn’t realize I was in the background until afterwards; he calls it his “two flowers.” (He insisted on putting this on the blog—I would have omitted it, just FYI.) :) 
Here’s a shot from the river looking back at the restaurant. It was such a pretty spot and really in the middle of nowhere—I assume it makes all its money from tours because I don’t know how an average traveler would find it. 
Our main destination of the day was Ollantaytambo.
In my last Peru post, I mentioned the siege Manco lead against the Spanish on the outskirts of Cusco. When they lost there, they retreated to this valley fortress.
The Spanish tried to attack them here, too, but the Incas flooded them out, and the Spanish troops were forced to withdraw. The Incas stayed here for about a year before the Spanish attacked again, driving Manco and the others deeper into the mountains. While they were here, though, they kept their food and supplies in these storehouses called colcas, which are built right into the rock. (That’s where the eponymous canyon gets its name—it’s such a fertile area that it’s like the country’s storehouse.)
As with all Incan ruins, the stonework here was impressive. Some sections still had these raised bumps, which scholars think might have been used to hook ropes around when moving the rocks.
Also similar to other ruins we saw, this fortress served more than one purpose. Not only was it useful as a defensive stronghold, but it also had a temple in it, and the terraces were used as agricultural plots, as well as military positions.
The exact method for moving the massive stones is unknown, but there are many theories. Here is a picture of the quarry opposite the fort, where the rocks would have started.
They somehow had to drag the stones down from the quarry, across the valley floor, and up the mountain to the building site. (One hypothesis is that they greased the stones down and slid them.) For whatever reason, some stones were left in these fields, halfway to their destination. They look out of place and abandoned, surrounded by crops, and the Spanish word for them translates as “resting stones,” which we thought was perfect.
One of the innovations that the Incas used (I’m purposely not saying “invented” because they often adopted techniques from the cultures they conquered) was thin buffer strips of rock between two larger slabs; this cushioned the shifting from earthquakes and is a major reason many of the ruins are still standing today.
They also had drainage systems…
…and fountains.
Overall, Ollantaytambo was one of our favorite sites. I think it helped that we saw it late in the afternoon when the sun was setting, giving the light a gold quality against the stonework. The Incas could clearly appreciate aesthetics, too.
In my last Peru post, I mentioned the siege Manco lead against the Spanish on the outskirts of Cusco. When they lost there, they retreated to this valley fortress. 
The Spanish tried to attack them here, too, but the Incas flooded them out, and the Spanish troops were forced to withdraw. The Incas stayed here for about a year before the Spanish attacked again, driving Manco and the others deeper into the mountains. While they were here, though, they kept their food and supplies in these storehouses called colcas, which are built right into the rock. (That’s where the eponymous canyon gets its name—it’s such a fertile area that it’s like the country’s storehouse.) 
As with all Incan ruins, the stonework here was impressive. Some sections still had these raised bumps, which scholars think might have been used to hook ropes around when moving the rocks. 
Also similar to other ruins we saw, this fortress served more than one purpose. Not only was it useful as a defensive stronghold, but it also had a temple in it, and the terraces were used as agricultural plots, as well as military positions. 
The exact method for moving the massive stones is unknown, but there are many theories. Here is a picture of the quarry opposite the fort, where the rocks would have started. 
They somehow had to drag the stones down from the quarry, across the valley floor, and up the mountain to the building site. (One hypothesis is that they greased the stones down and slid them.) For whatever reason, some stones were left in these fields, halfway to their destination. They look out of place and abandoned, surrounded by crops, and the Spanish word for them translates as “resting stones,” which we thought was perfect. 
One of the innovations that the Incas used (I’m purposely not saying “invented” because they often adopted techniques from the cultures they conquered) was thin buffer strips of rock between two larger slabs; this cushioned the shifting from earthquakes and is a major reason many of the ruins are still standing today. 
They also had drainage systems… 
…and fountains. 
Overall, Ollantaytambo was one of our favorite sites. I think it helped that we saw it late in the afternoon when the sun was setting, giving the light a gold quality against the stonework. The Incas could clearly appreciate aesthetics, too. We spent the following day wandering around the town of Urubamba. It was much less touristy, which was nice, but we also felt a little conspicuous. At one point, we walked by a square where nuns and monks were singing some sort of holy karaoke (heavy on the synthesizer). We stopped to listen for a bit, and one of the monks waved to us and shouted into the microphone, “Welcome to our brothers and sisters from the other country!” We waved and said thank you, our inability to blend in confirmed.
Something Emily explained to us while we walked down the little streets was that many Peruvians make a fermented corn drink called chicha. To advertise that this can be purchased, businesses (and many houses) put a red marker on a pole extending from their fence or roof. From what we witnessed in Urubamba, it’s a buyers’ market.
Coming soon…flashback to Machu Picchu.
Something Emily explained to us while we walked down the little streets was that many Peruvians make a fermented corn drink called chicha. To advertise that this can be purchased, businesses (and many houses) put a red marker on a pole extending from their fence or roof. From what we witnessed in Urubamba, it’s a buyers’ market. 
Coming soon…flashback to Machu Picchu. 
1 comment:
So, Brian found the only Pizza Ranch in Peru? Good for him. -Lisa
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