After our trip to Machu Picchu we took the Inca Rail train from Aguas Calientes to a town in the Sacred Valley, called Ollantaytambo. It was fun riding the train, though it was dark out so we couldn't enjoy the view. Ollantaytambo is an adorable little tourist town with a few different Inca sites to visit and not much else. We spent the first day exploring the town (which mostly means eating food) and discovered a great organic ice cream place where we could get actual ice cream, score! I have found that straccitella (sp?) is my new favorite flavor of ice cream. I have no idea what is is but it's delicious.
The second day we visited the ruins surrounding the town. We bought the Boleto Turistico that gives us access to ruins in a few cities in the Sacred Valley, as well as a few museums in Cusco. The ruins were cool to hike around in but we didn't have a guide this time so there wasn't too much background. I was able to discern certain things from what we learned in Machu Picchu and from the small map we had. We saw where the nobility lived, the Temple of the Sun, and the cool network of water channels that ran through the ruins and the entire city. Ollantaytambo is an old city with much of the Inca infrastructure still in place. In that way it's a really cool city, and they love having tourists visit. You always know you're in a tourist town when all the restaurant menus are written in English and everything is far more pricey than the big cities. Most of the buildings are from the time of the Inca and the waterways running through the city are definitely proof of that. Mostly though, the ruins offered a great view of the city below and as always the surrounding mountains.
That afternoon we took a Collectivo to Urubamba farther down the valley. From Urubamba we would hitch a ride to Pisac and see the ruins there. Collectivos are the absolute cheapest way to travel. For a 45 minute ride we only had to pay 1.50 soles (about 50 cents). Granted we were all crammed uncomfortably into this van but it sure beats paying 50 soles apiece for a taxi. The best part about the ride was that Lauren and I ended up in the backward facing seats so we had a van full of Peruvians staring at us for the entire ride. One of the women blatantly starting talking about us to her friend, though she was at least trying to whisper. Whatever, at this point I'm used to being stared at. I am taller than every Peruvian I meet, after all, so why not gawk at the giant white girl. Most of the time the people here think I'm a boy anyway, I don't think they're used to tall women in this country. Or tall people in general for that matter. Lauren fits in quite well here, but white skin aside I will never pass for a Peruvian. The Collectivo also kept stopping to pick up random passengers on the side of the road, even though there were no seats left, so that was interesting. And hilarious, I think I had the giggles through the whole ride.
Once we got to Urubamba we thought maybe we'd take an hour or so to see the town before moving onto Pisac. In the bus terminal I simply thought I would inquire about a ride to Pisac, but once I mentioned we were going there we were quickly ushered onto a practically empty bus, which promptly took off. So much for seeing Urubamba. I was quite confused why the empty bus was leaving, I thought they'd want as many passengers as possible. I also found it curious why the only other passengers on board had squeezed into the 2 front seats next to the driver. I soon learned the reason, you think I could've guessed from the Collectivo ride but I guess I don't learn. Right after leaving the station we kept stopping on the street to pick up more and more passengers until all the seats were full. Once the seats were full we kept stopping to let more people on. These people began sitting on buckets right in front of us because we were in the front seats right behind the driver. The bus kept stopping to let more and more people on, and soon the entire bus was crammed full of people standing or sitting wherever they could, including on me. There sure aren't any personal space bubbles in this country. But it was ok, more funny than anything else. There was one woman who sat directly in front of Lauren and I on a bucket facing us, and she kept staring at us. And I mean staring at every inch of our bodies; she inspected our hands and nails, our legs, our clothing, our faces, you name it. I am pretty used to people staring at me but that was a little unnerving given that the ride lasted for over an hour and she seldom looked elsewhere. Again, we were the only tourists on the bus so maybe that's why? I dunno, it was strange. We finally arrived in Pisac after 2 of the most interesting rides of my life and I was grateful to be rid of all the people. We stopped in the first hospedaje we came to and a room was really cheap so we gladly took it. It was a cute little place and I think we were the only people there. The owner was super friendly and seemed grateful for some business.
Pisac turned out to be an even smaller town than Ollantaytambo, but it boasted better ruins and 2 awesome markets, one artesian and one produce. It was also packed with organic cafés and cool places to eat so we were happy. We spent the night exploring the markets, and the next day got up early to check out the ruins. All you can see from town are the huge terraces on the hill, so I wasn't even sure there were ruins up there. Boy was I wrong. We kept climbing the mountain, up and up until we saw 4 or 5 main areas spread all over the mountain. It took us 3 hours to walk through them all, and I thought he ruins themselves were even cooler than the ones at Machu Picchu. At one point Lauren and I got separated when I stopped to look at something, so I ended up on a different trail and came to a whole little city that I had all to myself. It was both really cool and really eerie to walk around the ruins alone; I tried to really get a feel for what these peoples lives must have been like. All the ruins we've seen have been built high up on the mountainside, while the modern towns are down in the valley next to the river. They must have built their cities up high for protection purposes, from up there one has a complete view of the entire valley. It must have been so exhausting, though, to haul all their materials up there and everything. I find the whole thing quite fascinating. So Pisac was definitely my favorite town and ruins in the Sacred Valley. If I ever go back, though, I'd like to hike through the valley. There's a whole network of trails one can do that will take you to all the archeological sites (we only saw a couple out of many) and it would be so beautiful to camp there.
We caught another Collectivo back to Cusco that afternoon, and we plan to spend the next 3 days in Cusco visiting the museums and climbing Sacsaywyman mountain to see even more Inca ruins. We just can't get enough, they're so cool. That was our Sacred Valley trip, I'll keep you all posted on Cusco Round 3!