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Today we headed off for the Sacred Valley and our ultimate destination - Machu Picchu. We left pretty early as we had a busy day to get to our hotel for the night. On the road by 7:30am and drove around and up and over hills and mountains, stopping once to enjoy the view of the Sacred Valley.
About 9am, we stopped at a real touristy place with alpaca's and llama's to feed, a baby puma to cuddle (:P) and also show how traditional handicrafts are made. All the wool is dyed using traditional methods so the colours aren't as bright as synthetic materials. The one colour that really got my attention was the red as even though they used natural materials, they were able to get a really bright red colour. Turns out they use a little native beetle found on cactus plants. On the outside, he is just a normal beetle colour but when squished, he is the most brilliant red. He is also apparently a very important export for Peru, with the colour being used in most lipsticks....so girls, next time you use that real ruby red lipstick, there's bits of beetle in there :)
Again, back on the bus and this time, we headed to the ruins in Pisac. It was a bit of a hike up a hill to get to see most of the buildings as all the terraces the Inca's would've used for farming take up the lower parts of the mountains. These ruins were more complete than the ones we previously saw on our way into Cusco, with more of the buildings still retaining their complete structure, other than the roofs. The view from the top was absolutely brilliant, being able to look both up and down the Sacred Valley. The actual township of Pisac is now located a bit further down the valley so can no longer be seen from the Pisac ruins.
From the Pisac ruins, we travelled to Pisac town for lunch. First stop was the markets, as our tour manager, Clarisa, is from near Pisac and her mother still runs a stall in the markets. She was nice enough to cut up some native Peruvian fruits for us to taste.I can't remember what they were called but the first one was nice...second one, not so much. They grow 4 different varieties of passionfruit in Peru, 2 sour and 2 sweet, so Emma and I bought a couple of the sweet ones (came to like $1 for 2 giant passionfruit!) to try a bit later.
We had limited time in Pisac and loads to do, so we stopped at a small bakery in the markets that sold empanada's for lunch. I had a chicken one and also a ham and cheese. Both were quite nice and were a nice and quick lunch on such a busy day! Next stop was the silver shop for a demonstration and some information on how the recognise good quality silver jewellery and then the shop was ours to peruse. Needless to say, I think most people bought something as there was so much beautiful stuff! Following the silver shop, we had a little bit of time to wander through the markets and do some more souvenir shopping and then it was time to say goodbye to Pisac.
Guess what we did next?? Yep, get back on the bus :) And we drove straight to Ollyantaytambo. After a quick dump of luggage in the hotel reception, most of us headed to the Ollyantaytambo ruins. They were even more amazing than those in Pisac. Most of it was still in really good condition and the tale of the town made it a little bit more interesting to. It is named after an Incan soldier (a pretty good one!) who had fallen in love with one of the King's daughters but the King wouldn't let them get married. So Ollyantay rallied some soldiers with him and they started a revolt, building a town and forces in the town now called Ollyantaytambo. He didn't get the girl but future Kings used the township as a hideout at times from the Spanish as it was up the valleys from Cusco but not far enough up to bring Machu Picchu to their attention either. Those Inca's were actually pretty smart cookies for their time.
After we'd walked around for a bit, taking in the views, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner at a local restaurant. The pizza came highly recommended so that's what I had as we are doing the Inca Trail tomorrow and I don't want an upset belly for that!:)
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