The Sacred Valley

We took our first trip to the Sacred Valley.  It is an exquisite valley with a combination of impressive terracing on steep slopes and mind blowing Incan stonework.  The mountains are truly the Himalayas of the Southern Hemisphere.

Chicha!

We enjoyed people watching at the market in Pisac.  Lots of color.  Women drinking fruity chicha, a fermented corn drink the Peruvians have been making and imbibing since before the Incas.  We had a frustrating lunch where the service was slow, the food less than desirable, the day light diminishing and the view of where we wanted to go calling our name.

The Incan citadel sits perched on the peak above Pisac.  The guidebook said it would take 3 hours round trip on the trail/steps. There is also a longer 7k road that goes to the site.  Guideless, we started walking just before 4 pm and decided to walk until 5 pm.  At that time we would evaluate whether or not we would find a taxi to get a ride down in the dark.  We climbed the steps at a steady pace, using the climb to continue to acclimatize for Salkantay, a higher altitude trek we're planning to do later.  By 5 pm, we could see other people and knew that there must be vehicles to take them down.

Sure enough, we were able to squeeze into a car with a French guy and a Hungarian woman. They had been on a day tour of many sights in the Sacred Valley. We agreed to pay them a small amount for the ride down.  What a fuss we caused when the driver dropped them off at their hotel. He wanted 50 soles from us, we walked away, he parked his car and chased us on foot.  The French guy and the Hungarian women could have left us to our own devices but they stuck around to assist us.  The driver threatened to call the police, which we knew was a false threat, as we felt we were in the right.  He was angry and eventually stomped away with the 10 soles we had given our new friends. Similar to West Africa, we are always amazed when people don’t negotiate what they want before they provide services.

Despite the late start hiking and the taxi incidence, we had a very pleasant day.  But afterwards we realized that hiring a guide would have given us a better understanding of the ruins and a more satisfying experience.

A friend just reconnected us with an old acquaintance, Bill Mosely and his family, who are also traveling around the world this year.  Too bad we just found out that they are on their way to Arequipa from Cusco.  It would have been fun to hang out with them here or to explore Colca Canyon with them.