Cusco and the Sacred Valley

Cusco is bigger and more industrial, less touristy than we expected.  But given we were expecting San Cristobal in Mexico that isn't saying much and it's still pretty touristy.  Our first day here we roamed around eating lots of tasty food, visiting a weaving museum and generally relaxing.  However on Monday, we were up at 05:30 am as we had heard you could get into nearby Inca ruins for free if you got there before 7am and the word "free" will get us up at pretty much any hour.  This turned out to be true and we enjoyed beautiful views over Cusco

and explored the ruins of Sacsayhuman, a large fortress shaped like a puma (they say), with some very impressive huge stones and stonework.  It was the site of a major defeat for the Incas against the Spanish and the image of the condors that eat the dead was on the Cusco town flag for many centuries before they adopted the current rainbow flag.

We ended up extending our hike for a few hours visiting other free sites and heading back to town on a beautiful old Inca road

and that afternoon we took a free walking tour of town.  It's clearly used as a way to promote a lot of businesses but involves getting a LOT of free food and drink samples and also involves some interesting facts.

We had mentioned to the folk running our hostel that we were interested in trying guinea-pig (called cuy here) as it is a really common food in this area.  However in the city centre, tourism makes the prices very high.  In the end, about a dozen people around the hostel chipped in and we decided to cook our own

It's a bit like rabbit, but not a lot of meat for your money and we're not particularly recommending it, alpaca has been a better discovery.  Also, every time one of these local meats gets mentioned, people always mention the health benefits.  This has been true of everywhere "Cuy is low fat", "Moose is a healthy protein source", "the ancient Lima culture ate alpaca as a low cholesterol meat" and so on.  We think this is silly (especially the last one).  New and interesting food doesn't always have to be justified by current health fads.

After another day in Cusco, visiting the natural history museum and endless artesanias, we were pretty ready to leave on Wednesday morning.  Our first port of call was Ollantaytambo, where we found a campsite and enjoyed a beautiful hike up the steep side of the valley around the free Inca ruins of Pinkuylluna

The following day we headed to the village of Huilloq, where the local women have a weaving collective.  Normally, we feel kind of uncomfortable using people's lives as a tourist destination, but in this situation a friend of AR's had lived here some years ago doing research and had sent us to say hi to people she remembered.  We bought a couple of things and ended up staying in one of the families homes,

getting dinner, a cozy bed and breakfast the next day for a very low price.  People were lovely and we were very impressed by one ten year old boy in particular who translated our Spanish into Quecha for his mother at speeds they pay very highly for at the UN, and also wove some very pretty bracelets.

Rather than take another taxi back, we hiked about 6 km down the valley and then up to yet more stunning ruins at Pumamarca, where we were able to camp

and today followed old Inca trails another 6 km back to Ollantaytambo, pausing only for some chicha.  Chicha is an alcoholic drink made from fermented corn brewed in local homes.  When they have enough to share, they hang a red plastic bag outside and for 25-50p you sit in someone's living room enjoying the huge glasses

(pictured chicha also has strawberries!)


We are now back in Cusco for a night and hoping to catch up with some other WWOOFing friends for the evening before we all finally go our separate ways.