We took a cab to the Main Square although traffic was horrendous. I believe the fact that the festivals in the Plaza were still going on along with several other roads being closed contributed to us running about 5-10 minutes late. We called our Professor to let her know we were on our way so that everyone else on the trip wouldn’t hate us for having to wait so long.
Anyway, we got to the Plaza just fine, actually beating the bus that was to pick us up. Our first stop on the Sacred Valley tour was Pisac, followed by Ollantataytambo and Urubamba. We were supposed to hit Chincheros but the majority of us voted against it because we wanted to watch the sunset on the mountains.
When we arrived at Pisac I was surprised to find a market-like area. I was expecting ruins or something else historical but the bus let us off and gave us about half an hour to shop around. At that time I had finished shopping for most of my souvenirs/gifts so I wasn’t looking too hard for stuff but I did buy a couple of key chains that I got for a really good price. Across the markets there was a fresh juice/fruit market set up and I got some bananas since I had been suffering from a series of Charlie horses that week and I heard potassium was just the cure. There was also some llamas and obnoxiously loud music playing outside but I didn’t bother to visit that portion since I was too excited about the shopping. We all got back on the bus and headed to our next location, Urubamba.
Urubamba was everything I expected for our first visit yet I was still surprised at how high we’d probably be climbing. One look at the mountains and I almost died from exhaustion. My energy was really starting to wear out and I wasn’t all that excited about hiking these ruins but when I did, I was really grateful that I had. The view was gorgeous and although quite dangerous, it was still a pretty view in which I took lots of photos. The tour guide was MIA for the most part so we didn’t hear too much history about it but I do know that it was significant Incan ruins.
After Urubamba we went on the road to get what was supposed to be one of the better lunches included in the program. As Andres would put it, it was a “Garden of Eden” in the middle of the one of the poorest towns in Peru. The place was clearly made for tourists, with a buffet offering mixtures of Peruvian food as well as American barbeque and other dishes. We definitely ate our money’s worth, stuffing our faces with freshly made ceviche, pounds of rice, a myriad of desserts, free pisco sours, and all kinds of chicken and steaks (even alpaca). The best part of the restaurant, however, was not the food but the backyard. The backyard was filled with llamas and alpacas, plants, a little river, and just plenty of green grass. The site was definitely a rarity in Peru and we took advantage by laying and taking in all the nature for about an hour, or whenever we were called back to the bus. I loved the downtime and being with everyone since we all, for the most part, were split and isolated into our host family homes. It was definitely a good experience.
Our last stop, which was probably one of my favorites places of the whole trip, was Ollantataytambo. Although we were all very reluctant to leave our little haven in the backyard of the restaurant, the city we arrived to was outright gorgeous and vibrant with energy and culture. Five minutes after getting off the bus we passed about 2 parties and 1 main town fiesta happening in preparation of the Sun God festival on June 24th. We made our way through town, watching as everyone celebrated with family and friends and even the mayor (or a guy who had a mayor sash on). When we arrived to our destination, Karlayne and I almost fainted at the site of the mountains. It looked like it was definitely going to be a difficult climb and it was just a bit, considering the long day we had prior to it. We were super resentful about climbing up but we all sucked it up and the hike actually wasn’t too bad, especially for the view at the end.
We got to the top and the view was gorgeous. We stood on those mountains, overlooking the entire town and all the fiestas simultaneously occurring at once. At one edge of the mountain, we were able to witness a bull fight and a rodeo show. I stayed there for the majority of the time since it was such a great view although the “grass” on that mountain was prickly and kind of painful. At one point I asked Rachel to take these little cactus things off my shirt because they were poking me like crazy. Somehow I managed build a collection inside my shirt and all the other tourists were watching us, laughing, and taking pictures. It was all in good fun but it was totally necessary that I had those removed before my body bled itself to death. Anyway, the tour guide tried to gather us to visit Chincheros, what I believe to be another ceramic and textile exhibition of Incan artifacts but our group was just not having it. We had visited what seemed like millions of museums before that point and watching the sunset that was promised to us was more ideal. In the end, we all rebelled and refused to climb down the mountain until we got our sunset so that itinerary was altered just a little bit.
Overall the day was extremely long and tiring, but I loved every second of it. It was a great way to end the weekend and I grew more and more upset at the thought of having to leave early, or in what was 3 days at that time.
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