We spent a day exploring the Sacred Valley departing fromCusco at 9 AM.

Our first stop was Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexywoman), which is just at the top of Cusco. The site was an Incan site destroyed by the Spainards when the arrived. It was originally a temple to the Sun and the Incas built shapes of animals into the walls which luckily the spainards didn't see so didn't try to destroy. One of the animals a LLama was huge and the back was twice the height of Tony. The building would have been very impressive when originally built and the effort to make by dragging the hugh stones ewas amazing for that time.

Next stop was Pisac which was approx an 45 minute drive from Cusco. The site it built on the hill and most of the ruins is the large terraces that they built to grow crops on. This area is known for corn and a lot of the corn is exported to China who appreciate the giant corn that they can only grow in this area of Peru. At the top of the terraces is another temple to the sun and a temple to the moon.

We stopped in Pisac village for lunch (Qweuna soup and a cheese sandwhich) and a quick visit to the market.

Our drive to the next stop was approx an hour and we had a quick stop at a co-operative textile manufacturing place which is run by local families. They had Llamas and Alpacas to feed and touch then woman and men making the textiles by weaving on display and examples of how they dye the wool using natural dyes. I was very templated to buy a nice table runner, but couln't find one that I really liked so couldn't justify spending the money. Maybe next stop.

Last stop was Ollantaytambo which is where we were spending the night. The ruins were wonce again ns were once again started with large terraces and then a temle to the sun at the top. The ruuins were hugh and our guide pointed ourt the quarry where they dragged the rocks from. It was froa hugh distace over mountains and through a river that they had to block off before they couldn move the rocks through. They have quite a few large rocks still in the fields that for whatever reason they didn't take up to the template. The locals believe that these rocks are sacred and so don't move then and leave themn exactly as the Incas left them.

Our stay was in a house (sort of like a small hotel) but bathrooms were shared . Power showers again but luckily for me I had a hot showere. Unluckily Tony had a cold shower as the power shower wasn't working when he had his. Lucky he can handle the cold.

Meal out seemed e3xp3nsive but we didn't hav e a lot of food choices as its a small town .

Breakfast the next morning was nice (12 soles each) but a good start for the Inca trail which was an hours drive away from Ollantaytambo.