Day 5 SA Cusco to Ollantaytambo and Sacred Valley

March 28th has dawned and we are again thrilled it is not raining as the forecast had called for rain everyday here in Cusco. Headaches are gone, but we are still breathing deep. Onto the bus after breaky to head to the Sacred Valley only an hour away. On the way we stop at a traditional Quechua village that is supported by G adventures. Over the last 3 years G adventures has been helping the community develop a weaving and knitting co-op. Our first view was that of the women working on levelling an area to become the new market place. Hopefully the men are off tending the fields or working as porters on the Inca Trail. G adventures prides themselves on giving back to the regions they run tours through. In this case the community provides us with demonstrations on dyeing of the wool, spinning, weaving and knitting in the traditional manner. It was an interesting session followed by us tourist viewing their wares. Julie bought me a beautiful alpaca sweater. Once again we are amazed at the traditional ways of life still existing. Next year G adventure will move to another community as they have set this community on to a strong foundation. The road up to the village was a bit scary. It has been the rainy season so there are washouts etc. on an already narrow winding dirt roads.

After this visit we drove through the Sacred Valley which had very rich farming along the banks of the winding Urubamba river. Then it was our first taste of climbing and viewing a set of Inca ruins. built in the late 1400 hundreds. Climbing was tiring. Our guide Davis (Deybis) a 25 year old man from Cusco was excellent. Davis will be with us for the next 5 days and he is very passionate about his country and culture and a very fun guide. The climb was done in a light rain but still made us marvel at the work done by the Inca with only manpower to undertake the cutting and placement of the stones along the mountain sides.

Our stomachs started to gurgle and we stopped at a Hacienda for a buffet in Ollantaytambo then we were off to more ruins for the afternoon. Ollantaytambo is also where the train can be caught to access Machu Picchu for those not hiking the Inca Trail. Everyone but 2 in our group are hiking. Horah and Claudia from Romania will take the train as Horah suffered a knee injury skiing the week prior to the tour. After dinner we headed to the Inca Ruins located at the edge of Ollantaytambo. This site features large rock cravings on the mountain out crops featuring a head of an Inca. Also of note was that this site was under construction at the time of the Spanish invasion and features a rock at the top which was partial cut (or nature fracture) leading many people to wonder how it was done. We got lots of exercise today walking through the Inca sites but it would prove to only be a small sample of what was to come on the trail.

We head to our accomodations for the night. We are all wondering what they will be like as we don't see anything remotely close to a 3 star let alone higher. The surroundings are all full of half finished buildings, steel rods, mud, mess, dogs, bent rusted metal etc. We pull over and are told we have arrived. We enter a building and lo and behold we are transferred into a mini oasis. A walled off hotel with a beautiful garden and suitable facilities including a business centre with internet. Across the road is an absolute dump but we don't see it or even know about it once we are inside the hotel walls. Once again we had twin beds. I don't think they like anyone sleeping together.

We played a game of pool before dinner. It was hilarious as the cues had no tips and were smashed already at the ends. The table was hugely warped and we were challenged to sink anything. Finally Julie lost by sinking the 7 ball that we had designated as the 8 ball as there was not a complete set of balls either.

Dinner was at the hotel. They go to great efforts to please but the service is compromised as they bring out drinks one at a time. Same with the meals. It is quite silly. Julie's soup finally arrived once everyone had just about finished eating. It was all good though, as we should not complain because our normal is not the Peruvian normal. That is why we are travelling; to experience the differences, not to complain about them.

Tomorrow we start the inca trail. Everyone is a bit concerned about the challenge and we all head off to bed early to get a good start the next day.

Cheers
Julie and Dawson