11-17-21– Ollantaitambo Archaeological Ruins and Pisac Market

On the way to the lobby of our hotel this morning we were greeted by a rather green parrot.

We had pretty early today as we are doing a lot of driving.  We are taking in some of the sights of the Sacred Valley.  The views of the mountains surrounding the valley are awesome. 

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More Sacred Valley
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At one stop Margo had us turn around and look up the rather sheer side of the mountain.  We could see four rather shiny new pods suspended from the side of the mountain.  They are the Skylodge.  Overnight guest must scale the side of the mountain tethered to a cable and using large steel “staples” embedded into the side of the mountain as steps.  There were three sleeping pods with bathrooms and a dining pod.  Not interested in that adventure.

We eventually arrived in the town of Ollantaitambo and did a bit of wandering in the town.  The town dates to Inca times and many of the buildings have foundations and lower walls from the period.  You can tell the Inca portions by the gigantic size of the stones in the walls.  Those with very large boulder with very clean, squared surfaces would have been the buildings used by the nobility.  Smaller stones were for the ordinary people.

The streets were narrow but well paved and had excellent draining systems. 

And there was a lovely square with shops and a nearby small church.

Then we walked down to the Ollantaitambo Archaeological Site.  This site was the royal estate of Emperor Pachacuti, who conquered the region and build the town and the ceremonial center.  The site has a lot of terraces,

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More Ollantaitambo Archaeological Ruins
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several granaries on the hillsides above the area,

and some fountains that were part of the water irrigation and control system.

There was even a sundial on the face of a wall where the shadows could be used to tell time.

We wandered around the lower level where we saw stones that were carved with almost perfectly straight sides and perfectly square corners…all done by hand with no iron tools.

We then wandered the nearby tourist souvenir market...

before catching our ride back down the valley to the other end.  In the town of Pisco we stopped for lunch at the Pisco Inn (lovely place featured in a National Geographic article…they had the article on the wall). 

After lunch we headed over to the nearby crafts market that focused mainly on tourist souvenirs.  It was an extremely colorful market.

While waiting for our ride we peaked into the nearby cemetery.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped in a town known for its guinea pig.  They had big statues of guinea pigs in front of the restaurants.  

One lady came up with a crispy, roasted guinea pig on a stick.  Interested but we don’t think we’ll be trying it…even through Margot insists it is a very healthy and tasty meat.

We were back to the hotel in the late afternoon and just hung around the room before going to dinner.