Peru 2015/16 - G Adventures, Sacred Valley Tour - Ollantaytambo

We drove from the restaurant to the hotel in Ollantaytambo. Got checked in and found our rooms and then set out again with Daniel to the Inca ruins overlooking the town.

This was the bus that the larger group was travelling in. It was so nice to have our own
smaller vehicle. We were all at the same hotel in Ollantaytambo.

The view from my room

We saw these little groupings, at minimum a cross and a couple of bulls, on many of the houses.
Daniel said that the Inca used to have other items "protecting" their homes and this was a Spanish
compromise.

The Inca ruins are very close to the town and we walked through the main square (where there were preparations being made for another night of celebration, Oh joy, more fireworks!), across the river and into a tourist market before entering the site.

Daniel talking about the site. Below; the town. Across on the next hill: food storage.

Food storage, granaries, were built half way up the hill for safety and to allow
the breeze to go through the buildings and keep everything fresh.

Solidly built with no mortar and still standing today. Amazing. This was an agricultural site with
terraces but also military and religious. The Spanish knocked much of it down, as they did all the
Inca sites but Machu Picchu, which they never found.

Half of the Inca cross, in the Sun Temple area. We could see where statues would
have been, had they not been destroyed, probably of the snake, puma and condor that the Inca worshipped.

The stone came from this mountain, across the valley and 7km away. They had to bring it down
that mountain, across the valley and river and back up to the site.

Buildings up above the main site. More granaries and military posts.

The stairs were just a tiny introduction to what we would face for the
next 4 days.

Aside from the trapezoid shape and fitting them together perfectly, the Inca also
notched the stones to fit together and not move.

Lots of water features.

Although we were, supposedly, in the rainy season, Daniel said that they run
all year round, fed by the glaciers up in the Andes.

Walking back to the hotel and this was the Christmas tree in the square. Made of green
plastic pop bottles!

We ate as a group in a restaurant that Daniel recommended and then went to bed early as tomorrow the real adventure would begin. Looking at the steep mountains all around I could not imagine hiking up them. For hours. At this point I knew that I had not "trained" enough and I was worried about the effect of the altitude as just walking up the steps at the Inca sites we had seen today, left me puffing, gasping for breath and my heart racing.