Heaphy South American Trip 2013: Sacred Valley

Once we arrived back in Cusco after our jungle adventure, we had a small window to get washing done and money together before heading into the Sacred Valley. We hired a taxi for the day to take us to Ollantaytambo via a few sights, where we stayed a night before catching the train to Machu Picchu. We visited the Chinchero ruins, moray circles and the Maras Salineras. Chinchero was a main Inca agricultural centre not far from Cusco and probably provided the food for Machu Picchu (MP) and Ollantaytambo as that was one of the last strongholds protecting MP. Chinchero was nearly at 4000m so it made walking the streets a little more challenging as that is around 500m higher than Cusco. We're pretty acclimatised now, but its amazing how it can suddenly affect you when you least expect it. Chinchero was also a little different to other ruins we have visited in that it was still lived in by the locals and the terracing was being used for farming. We saw several woman and men taking their herds out for grazing.

Local from Chinchero

Chinchero Main Street

Main plaza and church - Chinchero

Local lady taking sheep to graze, perro following!

The Moray circles were fascinating as they were apparently an Inca seed and crop trial to discover which crops grow in what climatic condition. This was done because each level of circle had its own micro climate, it got warmer as you went lower. They then knew which crops would best grow in each Inca agricultural centre across their empire, which was vast.

Moray circles - Inca crop nursery

The boys!

We had an interesting experience on the way from the Moray circles to the Maras Salineras, we had to go through the bustling metropolis of Maras and came across a shepherd on her way back from what turned out to be grazing everyone in the villages sheep! As they were all herded down the street the sheep began to peel off on their own into their respective households and front doors leading to central courtyards where no doubt they hung out until the shepherd picked them up the next day! It was hilarious to watch, a few got the wrong turning and came careering back to join the rest of the herd creating havoc!

Herding sheep in Main Street Maras

Next stop the Maras Salineras, it was a windy road into a gully and from above looked amazing. Salt has been harvested from the briny waters of the Salineras spring for thousands of years. There are thousands of salt pans nestled in a canyon, which are used to evaporate water to extract the salt. The salty water is directed to the ponds by an intricate network of channels. Once the pond is filled, the flow of water is cut and it is allowed to dry. Salt precipitates in crystals, and when dry it can be harvested. The salt pan is run on a cooperative system.

Maras Salineras

Salineras

We arrived in Ollantaytambo later in the afternoon to a huge traffic jam and ended up abandoning the taxi and walking the rest to find our hotel. The town is very quaint with lots of tiny skinny cobbled streets everywhere and lots of locals all wearing traditional dress. The one thing that spoiled it's quaintness was the volume of heavy traffic having to go through the middle of it due to last wet season part of the railway washing away and now minivans taking the bulk of tourists to Ollantaytambo to pick up the train to MP.

The inca fortress however is formidable and well worth a visit and parts of it in very good condition still, it was built here so they could defend MP, it was placed here because the valley gets very narrow from here into MP, it made it easier to defend.

We caught the train to MP the next day and will send a separate blog as there are so many neat photos to post.