John Edward Cooper’s Notes

DAY 9: Cusco to The Sacred Valley B/L
Today the tour heads for Urubamba, the Sacred Valley of the Incas, where one of the highlights is a visit to the imposing Inca Fortress at Ollantaytambo. En route you will visit a camelid compound to see these unique animals at close quarters as well as the colourful Pisac market where local Indians display and sell their handmade artefacts. Lunch is in a comfortable restaurant then the journey continues to reach your hotel for an overnight stay in the valley.

“Janet was up at 6.45am,” I wrote, not long after the event.[i] “I rose too… Janet packed the suitcases, no mean feat because my winter parka was in one of the cases; and by sitting on them, etc., we managed to get them zipped up. We went down, handed over the keys, and went for breakfast — the best in all the hotels so far.” The coffee was extremely strong, so getting the right amount of hot water in it was a bit of an art.

[i] Janet wrote, “Up ca.6am.… 8am pick-up with our cases”; but if my “6.45am” is correct, then allowing two hours as she did, pick-up was more likely at 8.45am. With this the first photo below would seem to concur, if it was taken as we were setting off, as seems likely. What’s more, we were at our first stop (the photo below that) some 40 minutes later, a distance of 12½ or 15½ miles depending on the route, so that would be consistent with a later setting-off time.

Thursday 19 February 2015, 08:49:06
On the coach

First stop was at Awana Kancha (“weaving palace”), described as “Museo viviente del Ande” (“living museum of the Andes”). First Boris took us through a small museum proper, explaining as we went the exhibits of aboriginal artefacts, etc.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:30:16
“Welcome to Awanakancha, a local project supported by you.”


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:32:16
Exhibition: wild ancestral form of camelid


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:36:04
Exhibition: (?pre-Incan) representations of camelids


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:37:02
Exhibition


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:38:28
Exhibition: (?pre-Incan) representations of camelids and other statuettes


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:47:02
Exhibition


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:50:20
Exhibition: model of a tribal group


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:50:20 (detail)


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:50:20 (detail)

From there we passed fenced enclosures containing camelids — llamas, alpacas and guanacos — and there was green vegetation available to feed them.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:54:42
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: visiting the camelids


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:54:42 (detail)
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: visiting the camelids


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:54:42 (detail)
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: visiting the camelids


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:54:56
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: visiting the camelids


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:58:14
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: perhaps a guanaco


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:59:06
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: visiting the camelids


Thursday 19 February 2015, 09:59:34
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: visiting the camelids


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:00:06
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: visiting the camelids


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:00:54
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: visiting the camelids


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:01:10
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: visiting the camelids


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:01:22
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: visiting the camelids


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:02:12
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: visiting the camelids

There was a pair of condors, male and female, stuffed, with a representation of their nest and hatchlings. The one with wings outstretched looked huge, and it’s regrettable that there was no-one standing by to give a sense of the size.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:08:02
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: stuffed condors


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:08:10
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: stuffed condors

Then Boris showed us the use to which the wool of the camelids was put.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:09:56
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: spinning


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:10:02
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: spinning


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:11:18
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: spinning


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:13:02
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: dyeing — various dyestuffs and the colours they yield


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:14:14
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: dyeing — carmine dye from processed cochineal insects


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:14:22
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: dyeing — carmine dye from processed cochineal insects


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:15:04
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: dyeing


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:15:28
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: dyeing


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:17:20
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: weaving


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:17:36
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: weaving


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:18:12
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: weaving


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:19:02
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: weaving

After that, Boris showed us many varieties of potato, different shapes, sizes and colours — some not potato-like at all — and also a number of varieties of maize.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:22:58
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: potatoes (foreground) and maize (background)

There was a large shop selling the woven products, etc., that we visited before we returned to the coach and continued on our way.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 10:42:32
Awana Kancha, museo viviente del Ande: last look at the estate

Before we descended to Pisac, we stopped at a viewpoint overlooking the town of Taray which gave a magnificent view along the Sacred Valley.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:17:36
Viewpoint above Taray


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:17:44
Viewpoint above Taray: the valley along which we’d come


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:17:52
Viewpoint above Taray


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:17:58
Viewpoint above Taray


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:18:12
Viewpoint above Taray: Taray (below) and the Sacred Valley (ahead)


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:18:18
Viewpoint above Taray


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:18:24
Viewpoint above Taray


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:18:52
Viewpoint above Taray


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:20:32
Viewpoint above Taray: zoomed-in views


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:21:02
Viewpoint above Taray: zoomed-in views

As we zigzagged down into the Sacred Valley, terraced structures on the mountainside across the valley beyond Pisac came into view.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:28:46
View from the coach: terraced mountainside

In Pisac we visited a place where they made and sold silver jewellery. After the inevitable demonstration, Janet suggested we leave because she wanted to avoid temptation to buy. I more or less urged her to stay, though, and look around, and she bought some modest-priced earrings.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:38:10
Silver jewellery workshop and retail outlet


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:38:34
Silver jewellery workshop and retail outlet


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:38:48
Silver jewellery workshop and retail outlet


Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:41:22
Silver jewellery workshop and retail outlet

“We left,” Janet wrote, “and I suggested we look for bananas and bread…”; so we went out into the heat and the brilliant sunshine, searching down a side street or two and the main street, where there were many tarpaulin-covered market stalls. These all sold “touristy” things, though, — textiles, souvenirs,[ii] etc. — and we didn’t see any food stalls or shops.

[ii] The mention of “souvenirs” reminds me that not once in Peru did we see any Paddington Bears on sale, despite his fictional origin in “darkest Peru”.

Thursday 19 February 2015, 11:59:06
Pisac market


Thursday 19 February 2015, 12:01:12
Pisac market

“We could find neither, so I found Boris and he told me where I could find bananas and led me to a bakery.” He was sitting, nursing a Peruvian Hairless Dog pup, in a roofed area which happened to be just by a small bakery.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 12:03:48
Boris with a Peruvian Hairless Dog

We went off as directed and found the food market, where Janet chose three big bananas, then returned to the bakery — photographing on the way two examples of roof ornaments that are to be seen just about everywhere: typically two bulls and a Christian cross, often with additional decorative or symbolic items. After we asked him, Boris later explained on the coach the significance of them in blessing the house when it is first erected and occupied. They represented the spirits of the living house.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 12:16:20
Roof ornamentation


Thursday 19 February 2015, 12:16:20 (detail)
Roof ornamentation


Thursday 19 February 2015, 12:17:34
Roof ornamentation


Thursday 19 February 2015, 12:18:02
Bakery


Thursday 19 February 2015, 12:18:02 (detail)
Bakery: oven and freshly baked bread


Thursday 19 February 2015, 12:22:54
Peruvian Hairless Dog pup

We returned to the coach and proceeded along the Sacred Valley. After 20-odd minutes there was a brief stop to observe a stall cooking and selling spit-roasted “cuy”; and, after resuming our journey, about the same interval later we passed an ancient-looking masonry terrace.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 12:53:16
Views from the coach: stall selling spit-roasted “cuy”


Thursday 19 February 2015, 12:54:08
Views from the coach: adjacent statue of an anthropomorphised guinea-pig


Thursday 19 February 2015, 13:18:10
Views from the coach: S 13° 19' 38.2", W 71° 58' 55.5" — Stonework terrace


Thursday 19 February 2015, 13:28:24
Views from the coach

“Lunch was al fresco at a restaurant in a wonderful and idyllic setting,” Janet wrote. “After [John] had eaten we strolled around and saw llamas, alpacas, parrots and beautiful plants.” It was a buffet, situated under the open arches of the inner side of the single-storey main building, and eaten in a little open-sided thatched pavilion reserved for our party some small distance away. Although my appetite was somewhat off, I had a couple of slices off a maize cob, with huge corns like some of those we saw at Awana Kancha, some meat, perhaps alpaca, and some spaghetti with a meat sauce. I drank Inca-Kola; Janet had a diet cola but did not have anything to eat.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:32:18
Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:03:26
Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:22:14
Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:22:14 (detail 1)
Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:22:14 (detail 2)
Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:23:08
Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:23:16
Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:24:54
Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:25:04
Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:27:02
Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:29:00
Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:29:14
Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:35:40
Views from Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba


Thursday 19 February 2015, 14:37:20
Views from Hacienda Alhambra Restaurant, Moccopata, Urubamba

From there we continued on the way to Ollantaytambo.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 15:29:14
View from the coach: passing one of the many “prickly pear” cacti (Opuntia) seen on this tour


Thursday 19 February 2015, 15:30:02
Wall of cut and fitted stones

We were each issued with a multiple-use ticket (which could be used to enter 15 sites as well as this one)—


Multiple-use ticket

— and entered the Temple Hill area — called “the imposing Inca Fortress” in the holiday blurb: “however, this is a misnomer as the main functions of this site were religious. The main access to the ceremonial centre is a series of stairways that climb to the top of the terrace complex” — Wikipedia. They were a major trial for me. I had to stop every ten or twenty steps and breathe deeply, to the lungs’ full capacity (as coughing permitted). Recovery each time only took a couple of minutes, though.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 15:35:34
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area: central terrace


Thursday 19 February 2015, 15:36:00
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 15:45:02
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 15:45:02 (detail 1)
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 15:45:02 (detail 2)
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 15:45:52
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 15:59:12
The mountain Pinkuylluna on the opposite side of the Willkanuta River valley


Thursday 19 February 2015, 15:59:12 (detail)
The mountain Pinkuylluna on the opposite side of the Willkanuta River valley

Boris pointed out the bearded figure of Wiracocha, the creator in the native mythology, on the mountain opposite. When the bearded Spanish first arrived, the native people who don’t get much facial growth thought they were god-like.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:08:28
Pinkuylluna: supposed face of Wiracocha, the great creator-god in the pre-Inca and Inca mythology


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:10:26
Pinkuylluna: Inca storehouses


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:20:20
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area: view back down the terraces


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:20:44
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:22:22
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area: wall of cut and fitted stones


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:23:24
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area: wall of cut and fitted stones


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:25:22
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:26:20
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:26:20 (detail 1)
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:26:20 (detail 2)
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:26:20 (detail 3)
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:34:18
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area: projections from the stones


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:34:38
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area: step-patterns in the stone


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:52:10
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:52:18
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:53:28
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area

Boris said that there were two ways down, “the easy way” and “the hard way”. But “the easy way” seemed to me to involve more climbing upwards at first, and I was having great difficulty with that. “The hard way” was just to go down the same way as we’d come up, and I chose that. It was “hard”, mainly because of the lack of a wall at the side in some places with which to steady oneself.


Thursday 19 February 2015, 16:59:36
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area: “the easy way down”


Thursday 19 February 2015, 17:01:24
Ollantaytambo Temple Hill area: “the hard way down”

Then we returned to the coach, and were taken to the hotel in Urubamba. “On arrival at the hotel,” I wrote, not long afterwards, “we needed to wait while the forms were handed out and signed, and to receive our key. Because the hotel is part of the same chain as the previous one, we didn’t need passports. Janet got a porter to take our cases to the room and I gave him 5 soles.… We walked several blocks in the dark up the road to the establishment with ATMs that Boris had pointed out on the way down. I tried both cards, which were returned with the message ‘temporarily unavailable’, just the same as a number of days ago in [I don’t remember where].[iii] This is getting us worried now. We got a ‘tuk-tuk’[iv] back for 2 soles. Transferred the 97 items (mostly photos) from the camera to the WD Elements HDD (19:23–19:27)… Rotated a couple of photos that needed it (19:37–19:39). Janet unpacked essential items. As she was showering, the water went cold. She was not pleased about this! Then I ate a little loaf of the bread we bought at the baker’s in Pisac (a bit like Hovis); Janet had more than one with the bananas we’d bought at the market there. We went to bed ca.8.30pm” — or “9.30pm”, according to Janet’s holiday journal. She added, “5.30am pick-up [tomorrow]!”

[iii] We tried without success an ATM in Cusco the evening before this; but “a number of days” suggests a failed attempt elsewhere before this.
[iv] Called a “mototaxi” locally — not “tuk-tuk", which is originally Thai.

[Friday 20 February 2015]
[2015]