Thursday 17th March

We had to meet at the office at 8.45 then onto a bus at 9. We drove about an hour to a town called Pisaq.

Pisaq: A picturesque town of mix-blood inhabitants where every Sunday an interesting typical fair takes place on it's streets and a Mass Sung in Quechua in it's church. The Varayocs or Mayors of the various communities nearby can be seen in the fair those days, who come from their communities high in the Andes to church to be part of the traditional Mass and to barter in the fair. 

Here we stopped for half an hour, had fresh cheese and ham empanadas and wondered around the Market (getting hassled!)

Next we drove to the Pisaq archeological site, it used to be a large city made up of numerous wards such as Intiwatana, Antachaka. Aqchapata and the Tanqana Marka cemetery. We spent an hour here looking at the ruins and the view. Inside the mountain is the cemetery; all the holes are the tombs of the Incas. 

We then drove about another hour and stopped in a town called Urubamba for a buffet lunch, then we drove to a place called Ollantaytambo.

Ollantaytambo; 48 miles from Cusco. A beautiful town that preserves vividly Inca urban planning of houses, streets and waterways, safeguarded by a breathtaking fortress with temples, hillside farming terraces and walls. Squares and streets follow a purely pre-Columbian architectural layout and style. The urban layout of straight narrow streets with houses inhabited by the direct descents of people who have lived there from Inca times. It is built on top of two mountains, a strategic place that dominates the whole valley. It was a military, religious, administrative and farming complex. The Patakancha River divides the town in two parts: one where houses are found, and the other where ceremonial buildings were erected. 

After visiting the Inca ruins in Ollantaytambo we drove another hour to Chinchero where we visited a church; it was built by the Incas in 1610 and in 1715 it was made into a Catholic church but the people that live there are not complete Catholic they still worship Inca too. 

We then drove back to Cusco, grabbed a McDonalds and headed back to the hostel and had Pisco Sours (Pisco is the local spirit) with the hostel owner Coco.