A map of the Sacred Valley/Cusco area. It's hard to tell, but there is no road access to Macchu Picchu (red circle), which is why you have to either hike in or take the train.
Following our ordeal in getting to Cusco, we had a great trip. We stayed at the Unumizu hotel. It's not exactly in the historical district, to get to the main plaza you really need to take a taxi or walk about 20-30 minutes. However, we enjoyed the area. It was quiet in the evening, there was a really good fire-cooked pizza place just up the street and there was a bank and a supermarket within a block of the hotel. The rooms were quite nice with modern bathroom fixtures, flat-screen TVs and comfortable beds. Did I mention that the place costs about 1/2 of what you would pay for a room right in the historical district. For only a 2 night trip it worked out great.
The morning after our arrival we headed over to Calle Pavitos. On the corner of that street collective vans depart regularly towards Ollantaytambo. The drive out there is beautiful with great views of the Cusco countryside and the Andean range in the distance.
I got to sit next to the the minivan's "emergency window".
Notice the ancient Incan terracing going up the side of the mountain.
Town of Urubamba in the background
Ollantaytambo is a town and also the restored ruins that were once an Incan fortress. We didn't have time to tour the entire Sacred Valley so we wanted to only visit Ollantaytambo. However, we found out that you HAVE to buy the entire Sacred Valley pass, you can't just pay an entrance fee for an individual site. It was around $60 per person, which is more than admission to Six Flags or Seaworld. Being cheap, we decided to hike up to the unrestored ruins on the opposite side of the valley. There are ruins all over the place on the mountains.
The good stuff
Entrance to the restored site. This was as close as we got.
Our destination, the unrestored ruins on the mountains behind Ollantaytambo.
It was a pretty steep hike up and the high altitude didn't make it any easier.
They call these guys the "mules" because their job is to haul all the camping and cooking gear for the fancy gringo backpackers going on the trail. They basically do all the work like setting up camp and cooking the food. The tourists just have to walk. Ollantaytambo is one of the last places to buy any forgotten provisions. In addition to selling food and drinks, the shops carry flashlights, bug spray, Leatherman tools, "oxygen in a can", and other camping supplies - and coca leaves of course.
No comments:
Post a Comment