Sacred Valley Of The Inca´s

Cusco

Had a night of drinking in Cusco. Met tons of other travelling folks. Tried the local spirit called Pisco. It´s mingin :p We have a bunch of very noisy cokehead British guys as roommates in our dorm grr. Decided we need to get out of Cusco and start adventuring. Rather than doing an Inka trail we are going to head down the "sacred valley" by public transport and do some hikes up to ruins etc along the way until we reach Machu Picchu.

Sacred Valley

Day 1
Got ooon the bus ... to Pisac, which is the first town along the valley. Was a nice market there selling lots of llama stuff but not much else. Had an amazing 4 course meal for 7 Soles (1.40 pounds) (no pound symbol to be found). After dinner we walked up the hillside to the ruins. First trek we have done at altitude and we were both out of breath really quickly.
Tried eating the coca leaves we bought in Cusco. We weren´t really sure how use them or how much to use so just both chewed on a handful of leaves. Reynolds chucked up. lol.

Day 2
Travelled on to Calca, the next village along the sacred valley. Along the way our bus got stopped by a roadblock, a group of men who had put massive rocks all over the road. We didn´t really wanna get off the bus cos it looked dodgy and had all our valuables with us but everyone else got off so we followed. Walked on to the next town, no drama at all. Seems they are just protesting against some government stuff.

Set out to trek through a valley over two 4000m passes to a village on the other side of the mountains called Lares. Mixed messages off locals about length of trek ranging from 8 hours to 4 days lol so had to head back when it got to afternoon. Got chased by some horses so we had to jump off the road !?!?!
Arrived in Urubamba. Couldn´t find hotel but spotted two blondes in the distance and stalked them. Turns out they are volunteer teachers in this village. They helped us find a hostel and invited us to go see some live music the next day.

Day 3
Stayed in Urubamba. Hiked up to the "salineras", which are ancient salt pans, used by the incas and still used today to extract salt from the mountain water.
Carried on walking over the mountains to some strange circular ruins called Moray. Apparently these were used to experiment with growing crops at different altitudes. The ruins were OK but
just watching the peruvian farmers was far more interesting. Also saw some big birds of prey on the way back which a peruvian lady told us were condors.

Went out in the evening to see this band play. It was really good. Nice latiny style music, made you feel like you were in South America. Met up with the girls from yesterday and had some drinks and Reynolds tried to salsa a bit. The bar staff didn´t charge on the spot but just lined up all the beers we drank on the bar and counted them at the end of the night.. (16 for just over a tenner woooop)

When we got back to the hostel it was locked up. Had a shout and a knock but no one came so we had to break in. Reynolds climbed over the roof and then spent about half an hour finding a door to let me in by. Meanwhile I waited on the street, there was a policeman just down the road with an automatic gun patrolling. Thought faking extreme drunkeness was the best option rather than looking like a dodgy loiterer.

Day 4

Went to the next town along called Ollantaytambo. This place had the most impressive inca ruins so far as the stones were huuge and all fitted together like jigsaw pieces. Even more crazy when you consider they didn´t manage to invent the wheel.

Caught the train to Aguas Calientes which is the final stop on the way to Machu Picchu. It´s a dirty little town full of restaurants and not much else, but you have to pass through as the only way to MP is by train.