Exploring the Sacred Valley of the Incas - Machu Picchu, Peru
Machu Picchu, Peru
Where I stayed
Llama Pack Backpackers
What I did
Machu Picchu Urubamba
Lori:
We found a taxi right outside of our hostel in Cusco to take us an hour away to the first town within the Sacred Valley, Pisaq. We wanted to stop at an Andean Condor Sanctuary on the way, but buses don’t stop there, so we organized with this taxi driver to drive us to the Sanctuary, stop and wait with us there, then take us to Pisaq, all for less than $5 a person, still way more than it would have been to take the bus, but that would have been without the stop. Regardless, I prayed that the sanctuary would be worth our while, and it turned out to be.
Condors are the largest flying birds on the planet, and the experience of feeling them flying one foot above our heads, if that, as they swooped down toward their food, was incredible. The sanctuary reminded us all of the old Ohmahnee Farm where we used to volunteer feeding the animals when the kids were little. Ohmahnee, also an animal rehabilitation sanctuary, was in Greensburg, PA during the 1990’s before merging with a larger rehabilitation sanctuary. This sanctuary, Sanctuaro Animal Cochahuasi, like Ohmahnee, rescues injured or stolen animals from the black market and rehabs them with the goal of comfort, or ideally, reintroducing them to their natural habitat if possible. Before leaving, the kids decided to contribute a portion of their saved up tzedakah (charity) money toward a donation for the animals.
We arrived to our hotel, Nuestra Tierra, in Taray, a five minute drive or 40 minute walk from Pisaq, settled in, then walked into town along the wide, brown, shallow, rushing river, to check out the Mercado de Artesania, the infamous artisan market, the biggest in the area. The market is full of everything Peruvian you can imagine. There are all things woolen, made from alpaca, llama or sheep wool, medicinal kiosks with essential oils as well as vegetables and fruits set up on tarps laid on the ground in front of the church in the central plaza. We stopped to watch painters painting, weavers weaving tapestries and bakers baking empanadas. We browsed the narrow allies full of crafts until the market closed at 5:00 pm. We bought veggies for dinner from the ladies trying to get rid of their goods for the day at ridiculously cheap prices, and headed back to our hotel to cook and relax. This hotel room is a family room with couches and a private kitchen and the boys voted it to be the nicest hotel we’ve stayed in thus far.
Monday, after breakfast in the hotel kitchen, we headed back into town to climb the three kilometers straight uphill toward the Pisaq ruins. The hike was grueling, along nearly vertical terrain, but with switchbacks along the terraced hillside. Within five minutes, we realized that there was no way Eli’s legs could manage this hike. Jonathan, Eli and Noa opted to go by taxi and planned to meet Ari and me at the top. Ari and I enjoyed our hike, but due to the altitude, needed to stop and catch our breath every five or ten minutes. After four hours of walking and hiking, all told, we found each other up within the massive archeological site, once a large city and still full of perfect and interesting stonemasonry buildings.
The hike down from the ruins and back to our hotel was equally grueling. The trails were alongside steep cliffs without barriers at times, but too narrow to hold the kids hands. Additionally, the weather changes on a dime in this valley. One moment we were burning hot with the sun beating down on us, our pants rolled up and in tank tops. Five minutes later, we could be wearing winter hats, sweatshirts, rain jackets and ponchos. We left the hotel that morning at 10 am and finally returned by 6 pm, stopping only for a snack in town, to shop for groceries, and to find the woman who makes the necklaces Noa had her eye on the day before. She did end up buying herself a beautiful necklace with a blue stone, and even managed to barter the woman from s/5 down to s/4 (a little over $1 US). After the long trek back to the hotel, we cooked dinner, watched the documentary on McDonalds, “Supersize Me” on Jonathan’s computer, and crashed.
The following morning, after a nice long sleep-in and breakfast at 10 am, we found two mototaxis to take us to the bus stop heading toward Urubamba, deeper into the Sacred Valley toward Machu Picchu. We arrived at the terminal, grabbed a taxi and found “Llama Pack Backpacker.” This is not a normal hostel, rather a place to stay in Urubamba, within the Sacred Valley, with a man, Coqui, who is passionate about the area, specifically about the amazing alpine rock climbing, but even more so about the plight of the Quechua people who live in these mountains. His work and passion is his Llama Project which is his effort, in breeding and raising llamas for the families who live in the mountains, and who literally have no money (rather survive on a bartering system amongst themselves), to use these llamas as a way to earn a living. At this time, their plight is that without access to heat, electricity, running water, or medical care, many of their children die during the cold winters in the alpine freezing temperatures and an unconscionable number of mothers die in childbirth. The children, from the age of seven, or younger, work the fields, which could be hours away from their villages, and attend school only two days a week, for four hours each day, with only one teacher for the entire village.
Tourism is profitable, and there is tourism in the region, for sure, but all of it is organized by big tour companies in Cuzco or Lima who bring into this region their own people as guides and cooks, and their own animals for packing and riding, either mules or horses. This means that the horses and mules tramp (not lightly) on the jungle to bring tourists through and to take all of the money back with them to the cities. The Llama projects aims to teach these families not only to raise llamas for their wool and their meat, but also to use for pack animals on llama treks with the many tourists who come through to hike the infamous Inca trail, or any of the other less well known trails in the Sacred Valley. The llamas, as opposed to the mules and horses, tread lightly, so do not destroy the forest through which they walk. They eat that which grows locally and diversely, grazing all day, from anywhere in these mountains, so there is no need to clear areas to plant particular grass species for them, as is the case with mules and horses. Furthermore, llamas don’t leave big piles of dung along the trails, as do horses and mules. Rather, much like cats, they wait until they are back to their home and neatly leave a pile, making it that much easier to maintain the trails.
An additional aspect of the Llama Project is this hostel, where tourists can stay and explore the area, or trek with the llamas up into and over the mountains, staying with the local families along the way. Aside from bringing in money from pure tourism, this hostel’s twenty beds are generally filled with volunteer teachers, doctors, etc., to provide their specialties and desperately needed services to the Quechua villages in the mountains who are involved in the project.
When we arrived at Llama Pack, we felt so at home here, with the four month old llama, Kia, in the back yard in addition to a family with three young girls staying here as well! This quite cool and friendly family, with a Venezuelan Mom, Mariela, a Peruvian Dad (who is a long lost cousin of Coqui) and their three adorable American girls (who have lived in Houston their whole lives until a recent job took their family to Brazil), played with my kids on yet another slackline, with the llama, watching movies, etc. It made sense to make Llama Pack Backpacker our home base to explore the area.
From Urubumba, on Wednesday, we took a collectivo (jam packed van full of people, sheep, etc.) to Ollantaytambo, a quaint little Incan town set on the backdrop of a large Archeological site. Before we explored the ruins behind the town, we walked to the train station to secure our tickets for Saturday’s trip to Machu Picchu. Once we bought our tickets, we stopped in a café for more than an hour to eat and for Jonathan to use the Wi Fi for a work meeting. Despite the fact that it is becoming difficult to convince the kids that one more archaeological site is going to be exciting, this one actually caught their attention more than I’d anticipated. It is full of mazes and obstacles, nooks and crannies, rooms and holes, aqueducts and steep steps to climb, enough to keep us all engaged for nearly two hours. We hit one more chocolate “museum” in town (our fifth we think), tasting all the different flavored chocolate “jams,” before catching a bus back to Urubamba. From the bus station, before walking “home,” we hit the Mercado to shop for dinner. By the time we returned to Llama Pack, Mariela and her family had arrived back from Machu Picchu to give us the lowdown and for great company.
Thursday was a catch up day for all of us, except Jonathan who spent all day working, from a table in the hostel, on a conference call. Noa and Eli played with the girls, the llamas and on the slackline all morning while Ari, Coqui, I and Marco, one of Coqui’s two dogs, walked through the jungle, past farms and more aqueducts to the llama farm, where Kia’s parents live, along with her two siblings. After more than an hour of walking, we arrived to where the llamas were grazing, took them to a different pasture where they would spend the day until Coqui came back later in the evening, thus is the routine. On the hike back, we passed by and stopped at a potato farm to chat with the family of nine or ten people of all ages. Some were harvesting the potatoes, with massive piles sitting on a tarp, while a few of the others (moms and babies) sat under a makeshift hut roasting them on a fire. Ari snacked on a freshly dug up and roasted potato while we continued our hike back down to town.
The rest of the day was quiet, with our friends having returned to Cusco in the morning. We had the house to ourselves and took advantage of the kitchen, making a big pot of vegetable soup and tacu tacu (beans and rice formed into a pancake) Cuban style (with fried eggs and plantains on top).
Friday we walked to the bus terminal after Jonathan finished whatever work he had to do that morning. We were there by 10:30 am looking for a bus to take us to a crossroads, then would need to find a taxi to take us the rest of the way to yet another phenomenal archaeological site, Moray. Luckily, we found a taxi to take us the whole way for about the same price, but without the hassle. Moray is a site made up of three impressively deep amphitheater-like terracing organized into concentric circles carved into huge bowls in the earth. Because each layer, according to its depth, has its own unique microclimate, it is theorized that the Incas used these terraces as a laboratory to determine the optimal growing conditions for each species of crops. This helps to explain the close to 4000 species of potatoes grown here in Perú today. This site was strange, fascinating and beautiful all at the same time. After forty-five minutes of wandering around, we decided to keep moving, as we still had a lot of ground to cover that day.
We began the walk to the nearest town, Maras, apparently a one hour walk from Moray, but realized that the apparent three hour walk could easily have turned into a five or six hours with the varying paces of the members of this family. Once we realized this, I began to try to flag down any vehicle that drove past us. Within minutes, a tour bus half full of folks from Australia and New Zealand stopped, happened to be heading to the same place as we were, and kindly offered to let us tag along with their tour. Within a half of an hour, we arrived at Salinas, the incredible site of hundreds, maybe thousands, of salt pans which have been carved into the terraced mountainside. These pools of water vary in color due to their different depths, the mineral content and the amount of water within each. The pools of different shades of blue, red, brown and pink covering the mountainside create an incredibly beautiful site. These pans, which have been used since the Incan times, in exactly the same method of salt extraction and evaporation, using an elaborate construction of brilliantly designed aqueducts, is a must see in this Sacred Valley. Our souvenir from that day was a little rock of salt that Noa chipped off of a larger chunk and brought home to use on our popcorn.
We meandered through the pans, down the mountainside, ending up, an hour later, on the road heading back into Urubamba. We walked for thirty more minutes and nearly collapsed at Llama Pack after a very long day of walking and sightseeing. Our exhaustion served us well, as we were all asleep before 9 pm, perfect for our plan to wake up the next morning by 4:30 am to make it to Machu Picchu by the sunrise, if possible.
We woke up and wearily, but excitedly, grabbed our packed day packs and were out the door by 5:10 am to meet the taxi we had arranged to take us to the train station in Ollantaytambo. In perfect timing, he showed up and we made it to the station by 5:40 am, with time for a cup of coffee before the train would leave for Machu Picchu at 6:10 am. The train ride was spectacular, taking us further into the Sacred Valley of the Incas, with incredible sites the entire way of the snow and glacier capped mountains, the Urubamba River rushing like mad and the green pastures dotted throughout the valley. Ninety minutes later we arrived at the Machu Picchu stop, in the town of Aguas Calientes, the last on the line. We disembarked and walked as fast as we could to the ticket office where we hoped we could buy tickets to enter this great 15th century citadel. Most people purchase their tickets online as much as a year ahead, to secure their spot for the exact day they plan to be in the area, but with our lack of planning, and even more so, our need for flexibility, we were not sure which day exactly we would need the tickets. So, we took our chances, figuring that since we are visiting this part of the world in its very rainy season, there would be open spots out of the limited number of 2500 issued daily.
Jonathan and I were relieved when we had the tickets in our hand. We were all prepared to take another bus to the top of the mountain so that we could spend the entire day exploring these massive ruins. However, due to the heavy rains, we learned that the morning prior, there had been a landslide large enough to block the road so that no buses could pass. By this point, it was still early, 8 am, and we figured this would be no problem for us. From the bottom of the trail, in Aguas Calientes, Machu Picchu is completely hidden. The trail to the top takes anywhere from 90 to 180 minutes, but with the crowds of people, many of whom were unprepared, we made this trek nearly in single file, in close to two hours. Despite the difficult and steep trek at an altitude of 2430 meters, we all appreciated the fact that we had been thoroughly acclimated to the altitude by then, and were all fit enough to manage. This was not the case with many struggling tourists we passed on the trail who were completely unprepared for this trek, but did not want to miss seeing the infamous Machu Picchu, one of the newest wonders of the world as of 2001.
Along the hike up to Machu Picchu, we met a group of Americans who were traveling from a university in upstate New York. They had been hiking for four days along the infamous Inca trail with several English speaking guides. The group was about “pushing boundaries,” and the leader of the group was a 67 year old Iranian psychology professor who graduated and taught at The University of Pittsburgh for more than twenty years. We are grateful that they invited us to tag along with their tour, as English speaking guides are apparently scarce at this time of year. The next two hours spent with this guided tour was priceless. If we hadn’t already realized the insightfulness, brilliance and spirituality of this ancient Incan culture from our last month exploring Perú, we do now. I, for one, am awed by their architectural brilliance, their seismically sound structures, withstanding earthquakes on this fault line since the 1400’s. I am blown away by their knowledge of astrology, utilizing sun dials to guide their agricultural worlds. Mostly, I am impressed with their organic existence with and their deeply held respect and gratitude for the land, the rivers, the sun and the mountains among which their civilization was able to thrive.
Yesterday, our last day in this Sacred Valley of the Incas, we spent in a typical Andean village, Chinchero. This village has a population of 900, but on Sundays, their well-known market draws crowds of traditionally dressed locals from the hills for the produce, where the ancient practice of bartering still takes place (trading goods rather than using money). We took a thirty minute bus to Chinchero and found our way by following a friendly Andean woman who was on our bus and also heading to the market. We spent most of the morning wandering through this colorful market and buying produce for last night’s dinner. Ari finally spent some of his Chanukah money on a Quena, an Andean wind instrument, and we spent some time at this stall listening to the sounds of this flute and learning exactly how to position the mouth in order to make this flute “sing.”
When we had seen all of the market, we headed toward the Ruinas Inca. Despite the fact that the kids had seen more than enough of this stuff, once we began walking past the numerous artisan workshops, stopping for puffed maize snacks and hot salted corn on the cob, beyond the colonial church, we ended up walking in massive fields of green grass, something we have not seen in months and have missed. The sun was shining and in the wide openness, the kids literally began to run, lie down and tickle each other. We could barely convince them to carry on toward the ancient Incan terraces carved into the valley, but with wooden arrows as sign posts, this became a game of who could find the arrows first. We carried on to see ancient aqueducts still efficiently transporting water, various rocks carved into seats and staircases, until finally, we saw rain, then hail! We covered ourselves with our rain jackets, ponchos and busted out our umbrellas, but the hail balls were huge and painful on Ari and Noa’s sandaled feet (the rest of us had worn hiking boots). Then came the thunder and lightning and I was legitimately afraid. I started to run and scream for the rest of the family to do the same. We lost track of the way we had entered the site, could not find any more arrows, and just ran and ran, eventually ending up under an arch of an old colonial temple just beyond the market.
Once the hail slowed, we ran toward the bus stop, but got pelted again and stopped in the entranceway to the town’s public bathroom. Standing there with six or so others, the bathroom attendant, a police officer, and some other randoms also waiting for the hail to end, it became apparent that the metal in Eli’s umbrella (made in China) was broken in four different places. It truly was a sight to see; from the state of this thing, the metal pieces bent from the wind, the fabric ripped off of its anchor in more than one place, one was unable to determine whether it was inside or out. These folks in the bathroom took notice of this situation, laughed for a moment, then banded together like surgeons to fix this thing. The bathroom attendant, using string we watched her pull from her poncho, worked with three others, randomly stranded in the foyer of this bathroom, and in all of two minutes, had completely repaired Eli’s umbrella. Eli’s jaw dropped in complete awe of what had just occurred. The hail then turned to rain, we said, “muchas Gracias amigos y hasta luego,” hoping that they understood our gratitude (they definitely did if they saw Eli’s face with his jaw mouthing the words “Oh my God, THANK YOU!” truly meaning “friends” and actually hoping to see them again.
When the hail turned to rain, we continued to run, stopping in the market for more shelter, where vendors were hiding all of their goods and themselves under tarps and eventually made it to the bus stop. We opted to take a taxi for a few more soles than a bus would have been so that we could get back to Llama Pack, warm up our cold hands and feet, and settle in for the evening. When we arrived back, we were surprised to find two more llamas here in the back yard, assuming Coqui brought them down from the mountain yesterday for his llama trek he had organized with some tourists today, all proceeds going toward his Llama Project. The more the kids have learned about this project, the more compelled they feel to support it as well. Our rent for this week supports the project, but further, they have decided that this project, for them, is one which they understand to be good and important enough to be worthy of a portion of their tzedakah (charity money). Each has decided to donate 60 Soles, or $20 US ($60 total) to this project, despite their irritation with the llamas last night when they literally, for close to an hour, could NOT leave the hostel to buy chocolate at the bodega next door, for fear of the newer and rowdier llamas escaping with them. In the end, it took some creative strategizing, but the chocolate cravings did prevail.
Further, adding to the evening’s excitement, we could not find the Llama Pack cat, Meow, anywhere! Despite my significant cat allergies, and my lifetime avoidance of these felines, this grey furry animal in particular has won my heart. I fell asleep before any resolution to this mystery unfolded, but this morning Jonathan informed me that Meow, an outdoors only pet, was discovered when Eli, aka Oz, aka “The Cat Whisperer,” crawled into his bed and found Meow cuddled up in his sheets. I know Eli smiled as he fell asleep last night, having found yet another feline admirer.
Today, after breakfast and a work meeting Jonathan has at 10 am, we are planning to take a bus from Urubamba back to Cuzco. We had met a Canadian woman working at Casa de La Gringo Guest House in an artsy neighborhood of Cuzco, San Blas, and have reservations to stay there. Our goal is to either head into the Amazon in a day or two, or skip it due to heavy rains and possibly impassable roads, and head straight down to Arequipa. We will spend today nailing down those plans, seeing a native dance show this evening, and hope to return to our favorite Israeli restaurant for dinner.
Eli:
On Sunday coming to Pisaq in a taxi, we stopped at a rescue center called Sanctuaro Animal Cochahuasi with llamas, condors, jaguars, turtles, ducks, etc. The whole village of Pisaq is basically a market. We actually stayed right outside of Pisaq in Tamay. So every time we wanted to check something out in Pisaq, we had to walk 30 more minutes.
After two nights in Pisaq we rode a bus to Urubumba. The city of Urubumba is dirty but we're staying in a really nice place called Llama Pack Backpacker. The owner of Llama Pack Backpacker, Coqui, has llama's in the mountains and he gives them to the local villages for clothing, work, and meat. Llamas are much better than horses because they can carry heavy loads, don't destroy the environment, they poop in one spot and eat all kinds of grasses. On Wednesday, we rode a colectivo to a nearby town named Ollantaytambo. While we were there, we went to some ruins. The ruins had obstacles and it were maze-like.
On Friday, we went to Salinas and Moray. Salinas is a very old salt mine. I learned there that if rain stays in a spot, some will turn into salt and the rest will go back into clouds. In Moray we saw bowl shaped ruins. The Incas used the different levels of the bowl to grow different vegetables.
On Saturday, we went to Machu Picchu. Now it's one of the new wonders of the world since 2001. Getting to Machu Picchu was harder than we thought because there was a landslide in the road so we couldn't take the bus. We had to walk the steep steps for about two hours. I could tell that people weren't ready because I saw old people, fat people, fancy people, etc. At the found city, we also had to walk up and down steps to go to the many parts.
After spending the week in the Scared Valley, Coqui our host made us feel at home at his home. I also liked the cat, meow witch I found in my bed. I'm guessing my bed because cats love me and my mom calls me the cat whisperer
Ari:
On Sunday morning, we took a taxi from Cusco to Pisaq, a small town in the Sacred Valley towards Machu Picchu. On the way we stopped at a Andean condor sanctuary, a place for rehabbing injured or stolen animals. On Tuesday, we took a one hour bus ride to Urubamba. We are staying in a place called Llama Pack Backpacker. The owner, Coqui, has five llamas, two of them staying at the hostel. The other three are in the mountains, an hour hike away. One morning my mom and I walked with Coqui and his dog, Marco, to the llamas. We let them out of their gated area and walked with them down a path to the grassy mountainside. They were free to run around and eat the grass until that afternoon when Coqui walked to the mountain and brought them back.
On Wednesday we took a colectivo from Urubamba to Ollantaytambo, a small town a half hour away. While there we bought our train tickets to Machu Picchu for Saturday. On Saturday we woke up at 4:45 am and took a taxi to Ollantaytambo and rode the train to Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of Machu Picchu. The infamous Machu Picchu is a ruin and one of the new seven wonders of the world. The road that goes up the mountain was blocked from a huge landslide that happened the day before. As a result, we had to walk up the whole way. When we arrived at the top, we explored the ancient city, which is almost fully intact. The Spaniards didn't destroy it because it was hidden from the valley below. After walking around the abandoned Incan city, we walked down and took the train back to Urubamba. This morning we are heading back to Cusco for the next few nights. I have learned a lot in the Sacred Valley and have visited enough ruins for a lifetime!
Noa
For the past week, we have been in the Sacred Valley between Cusco and Machu Picchu. Everywhere in the Sacred Valley, people are selling hot corn on the cob with cheese for one sole (30 cents US) because it is grown all over this area. Sunday, we stopped at Sanctuaro Animal Cochahuasi, an animal sanctuary on the way to Pisac. While there, I saw alpacas, llamas, cats and condors that have been hurt and are being taking care of until they are able to go back in the wild. A few days later, we took a bus to Urubamba from Pisac. Since we wanted to visit Machu Picchu on Saturday, we bought train tickets in a town nearby called Ollantaytambo. The next day, we went to Moray archeological ruins and to Salinas, a salt mine. I took a little chunk of salt that we could use to make popcorn.
On Saturday, we woke up at 4:45 AM to go to Machu Picchu. We took a taxi to the train station in Ollantaytambo. The train was nice compared to Peruvian buses because it was clean and we were given drinks and snacks. We were going to take a bus up to Machu Picchu instead of walking but there was a landslide so the road was closed at a certain point. The walk took two hours and it is all up hill. Machu Picchu has amazing ruins that are huge and unique! My favorite ruin is the sun temple. In the temple, there is a little window and the sun comes through it every year on June 21st, the summer solstice. On the walk down, I saw a man who fainted, fell and cracked his head on the concrete and was bleeding. That reminded me to always drink water when exercising or at a high altitude. Be safe!
Yesterday, we took a 40 minute bus to Chinchero for the day. We went to an arts and crafts market in town. We also explored the Incan ruins behind the market. While there, It hailed and rained. By four in the afternoon, we were tired and caught a taxi back to Urubamba. We watched a movie and then went straight to bed. All together, the Sacred Valley was fun but I have seen enough ruins for a lifetime.