Don’t Skip: Ollantaytambo, Peru
Intro to Ollantaytambo The town of Ollantaytambo lies at the intersection of three valleys, at the western end of the Sacred Valley region in Peru. Traditionally, it was a place to rest and restock on the way through the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu. Remains of temples show religious significance as well. During the 1400s […]
Moray and Chinchero
Concentric Circle Ruins at Moray The concentric circles at Moray were different from anything we´d seen so far. The most widely-accepted theory is that these terraced circles were used as an agricultural laboratory, to experiment with what crops (wheat, quinoa, other grains, potatoes, etc.) would grow best at different temperatures and under different conditions. It has […]
Tambomachay to Saqsaywaman
While Cuzco is an amazing city to explore, there’s so much more to see once you get out of town. Surrounded by the Andes, Cuzco was the heart of the Inca Empire. Even before the arrival of the Inca, the Killke culture dominated this region from about 900-1200 AD. There are countless ruins in the […]
Machu Picchu
The train ride from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes (aka Machu Picchu Pueblo) was like entering the jungle. Everything got more and more lush, green and wet. There was less agriculture, and more wild. Aguas Calientes itself (named for thermal springs on the edge of town) was another kind of jungle, the tourist kind. Obviously this […]
Pisac: Gateway to the Sacred Valley
To travel to Pisac from Cusco is about an hour by local bus, 2.40 soles about 70 cents US. We sat next to two women who were having a conversation in Quechua and trading goods. One had bread and the other bananas and they seem to have made an agreeable and tasty trade. So far […]
Santuario de Pachacamac
After a quick geocache find at a pretty lookout near our hostal, and with a new SIM card inserted in my cell phone, we head south from Lima to Pachacamac, a ceremonial and religious center which first came into use around 650 AD by the Wari culture. Its cemetery was sacrosanct, and the buildings and […]