Tag Archives: Landscape

Oy, Oy, Ollantaytambo – a day in the Sacred Valley

13th April 2018

[Long Read Warning – this was a content-rich day. Get a coffee, or a drink, is my advice]

The valley that runs from Pisac to Ollantaytambo was called the Sacred Valley by the Incas, as it ran along side of the Urubamba river, also known as Willkamayu in the local Quecha language, meaning “sacred river”. It became an important part of the Inca empire, and having the advantages of lower altitude and water, was a good area for farming, principally maize and potatoes.

Our day in the Sacred Valley was spent travelling through the valley from Pisac to Ollantaytambo. The weather at first was very dull – raining quite hard at times – but it cheered up as the day progressed.

Pisac is well-known for its market, which takes over a latge part of the town. These days, it plays mainly to tourists, and, like many such, it’s a colourful place.

Many of the stallholders dress traditionally,

and there are one or two locals also dressed traditionally, in the hope of getting a tourist Sol or two as a photo opportunity.

Some of the fabric designs are wonderful.

Traditional dress figures strongly among the locals (particularly, it must be said, the older ones)

but modern life exists alongside tradition.

Above – this lady is carrying milk, direct from the cow, to sell it at a stall

Shortly after I took the picture above, one of the ladies handed her lamb to the other, and pottered off on some mission or other.

The town itself is pleasant, quite pretty in places, but the usual South American mix of colour, charm and scruffiness.

On the outskirts is a tiny church (not the only one, but the cutest)

and many of the buildings sport a pair of animal statues on their roofs, by way of a blessing.

The town is well-paved, with aqueducts running along many of the streets

beside which you see mosaic versions of many Inca animals, with the condor (the animal the Incas held in very high regard) featuring often, in different representations.

and other traditional Inca animals such as the snake (bottom of the snake-puma-condor hierarchy).

Occasionally, you can see, outside a shop, a small basket hangingn on a pole. This means that the establishment is a public bakery. People can bring things – including cuy, or guinea pig – to be baked.

If the pole sports a red thing at the end,

it means that the place serves chicha, a local alcoholic drink. There are plenty of these establishments.

The town’s Inca roots can be seen in some still-extant terracing, originally used for farming, but here used to support a cemetery. Note the protrusions in the middle of the terrace wall; these form an Inca-style staircase

which is still in use today!

Our journey from Pisac to Ollantaytambo involved some notable items of interest. For example, a town called Lamay seems to specialise in eateries which will serve you the local delicacy – guinea pig, or cuy. The marketing is not subtle

in the way that it tells you that you get guinea pig on a stick.

Jane tells me that it smelt delicious.

Cuy is very clearly a delicacy and one to market heavily.

We stopped for lunch (not guinea pig!) at a splendid place called “Sol y Luna“, which, being Relais et Chateau, was, obvs, dead posh. We had a lovely lunch and were, unexpectedly, entertained with a display of traditional Peruvian horsemanship

and dancing.

After lunch we went to Ollantaytambo, which was a delight, but only after bumping up a considerably cobbled road through narrow streets. The town itself is, yes, typically South American – charming in places, scruffy in others and quite colourful.

but what it’s best-known for is a very substantial Inca fortress.

which you can climb up if you have the stomach (or, rather, the lungs) for 300 steps up at altitude. If so, you get to see some fabulous Inca stonework

with beautifully interlocking (and very substantial) stones which provide a base stable enough to resist earthquake)

containing niches for idols, fashioned in the traditional Inca trapezoidal shape)

and differentiatng between the temple part (on the left, with top notch stonework) and the farming part (on the right, still good stonework, but not of the top quality reserved only for noble houses and temples).

At the top is the throne, reserved for the ruler to view his fiefdom,

and this is his view. Note that the alignment of this is such that at spring equinox, the sun rises exactly over the top of the mountain in the centre of the picture.

There was a huge amount to learn from the Ollantaytambo site – how the accoustics of the design allowed for eavesdropping on conversations at a lower level; how it was never completed; how much of it was buried so that when the Spaniards came and took over (after a battle which they lost, incidentally) they didn’t find (and hence destroy) what was there – it’s around 80% complete and only the perishable stuff (like roofing, traditionally made using bamboo to support thatching) has disappeared. Some restoration work has been done, but fundamentally the site has survived over the centuries due to the remarkable stoneworking abilities of the Incas.

This was the first significant exposure to Inca work that we had seen on our travels, and it was a very impressive site and sight. There is much to learn about the Incas, and Camila, our guide, gave us some wonderful historical and cultural insights. I’ve tried to get across some of them, but, fundamentally, what takes your breath away is the size and scale of the place – an excellent end to a long and varied day.

Intermezzo: From Lima to the Sacred Valley

Leave a Reply

12th April 2018

The journeys we’ve undertaken to get from one segment of our holiday to the next have been largely unremarkable (one was, of course, an actual segment in itself), and so have remained undocumented. The route to our next hotel, the remarkable and lovely Inkaterra Hacienda in Urubamba (number 4 in our really favourite hotels)

was sufficiently unusual and content-rich to be worthy of a small side note about it.The first remarkable thing was that the flight was delayed. So far, we have undertaken 11 flights; one has actually departed early and a couple have been a few minutes late, but our departure from Lima was an hour and a half late. This is a shame, since Lima’s departure lounge is not a rewarding place to spend time. The next remarkable thing, and something that tells the European traveller that he or she is in a far away place with a strange sounding name, is what greets you as you head into the baggage area at Cusco airport.

A post shared by Steve Walker (@spwalker2016) on Apr 12, 2018 at 2:10pm PDT

To get us gradually acclimatised to altitude, our destination was not Cusco (3400m) but the Sacred Valley (2800m), and this is a 90-minute drive from Cusco. Our guide repeated the helpful advice about ways to combat altitude sickness (including, as an extra, that coca tea is a diuretic, something I realised by the time we got to the hotel) and then made sure that we got some extra value out of the journey with a couple of stops. The first one was in Chinchero, where we stopped at a place which specialised in the traditional, hand-made production of Peruvian fabrics. Outside it was a Peruvian Inca Orchid, the hairless dog found in the region

and inside it were various animals, like llamas and alpacas

and, of course, dinner.

We were then treated to a demonstration of cleaning and dyeing the wool from these animals

as well as weaving using the dyed threads. It was clearly an attempt to get us to buy some fabric, but it was low-pressure. What they had on offer was gorgeous, but very expensive (as you’d expect for something that takes weeks to make working six hours a day), so we made our excuses and left 20 dollars by way of thanks for their time, because it was genuinely interesting. I have some video footage with which I’ll bore you shortly after I can get to an editor.

A few minutes down the road, our guide once again stopped and led us to a breathtaking viewpoint over the Sacred Valley,

(you can just see our hotel, the group of small buildings towards the lower right of picture, in the cleft between hills) and also, kindly, stopped again so we could take another photo of the main town in the Valley, Urubamba.

One intriguing thing can be noticed if you look carefully at the hillside (just above centre in the following photo):

you can just make out the letter C with, below it, GOU, sort of carved into the hillside. This is an example of work done by local schools, with the initials representing the school; apparently, on the school’s anniversary, the students set lights up within the letters so they can be seen at night, which must be a spectacle. There are several sets of letters to be seen in the hills in the area.

And shortly thereafter we were at the hotel, which, as I say, is very lovely and has service that is so attentive as to be almost oppressive. Among the welcome gifts is a voucher good for two Pisco Sours in the lounge, which means it must be Time For The Bar.

Cheers!

Galapagos 6 (Friday) – Shark therapy

1 Reply

6th April 2018

The day was spent parked at a couple of islets just off the island of Santiago (the island, not the Chilean capital city) – Sombrero Chino and Bartolome. The former has its name for a very good reason

As you can see, it’s shaped like a Chinese hat. The first activity of the day was a very early morning walk on it, where we were greeted by some friendly sealions. As you can see, it’s not difficult to get photos.

Our expectations had been set that it was a nice opportunity for some bird photography in the morning light.
The morning light was certainly nice

but in the event, the birds must have seen us coming, as there wasn’t a huge amount to see, beyond ancient cactuses on an adjoining island

some interesting flowers

and a rather grumpy-looking marine iguana.

some crabs

and an American Oyster Catcher

so I wasn’t quite sure it was worth the early start. However, the early start was necessary, as the day had a relentless flow of activities. Next up was a snorkelling expedition, which I approached with some trepidation, given the unsatisfactory attempts I’d had already. But I gave it a go and I was glad I did, as I was somewhat more successful with the underwater camera. I managed a photo of something that is recognisable as a shark!

as well as some fish, like this King Angel fish

and some video footage of the shark, too.

Generally, the whole thing worked well for us both – I was able to gain some confidence in the process of getting into the water, and Jane’s prescription goggles worked a treat and she saw a whole load of interesting things.
There was more snorkelling in the afternoon, which I missed (these blogs don’t write themselves, y’know) and Jane reported that it was not quite as good as the morning’s session, but still good, which is good.

The final activity of the day was a walk up Bartolome, which is a very young island, just some 500,000 years old, formed from recent volcanic activity, which gives it a landscape reminiscent of Mars.

and plants just beginning to establish themselves.

These are a white colour because they are covered in lichen, part of a defence mechanism against the harsh sun. Also note that they are spaced out as each plant establishes and defends its own territory in order to survive in these arid conditions – Bartolome, at around 100 metres, is not high enough to stimulate rainfall or condensation from the incoming, mainly south-easterly winds.

The island gives some pleasing opportunities for landscape photography.

Some animals have arrived – snakes, grasshoppers, lizards – by a variety of routes – on the wind, over a land bridge that once existed, attached to birds. But the star of the show was a juvenile Galapagos Hawk, who was waiting for us at the top, and who obligingly posed for photos (it wasn’t difficult to get close to him)

before he decided he’d had enough and took off.

Seeng the hawk was a remarkable thing, as was receiving a text message from an ex-neighbour whilst at the top of this otherwise isolated and desolate place – an unusual confluence of nature and civilisation. Truly the Galapagos gives unique experiences.

To see the final day’s instalment, click here.