Amy Blog....Sacred Valley
tonight is a peaceful night in Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley and Craig and I are getting ready to wrap it up. All of our story can be found on his blog,
http://craiginperu.blogspot.com
We decided against spending extra $ to go to Ayacucho since this would have involved a night in Lima and some $$ so instead we have spent the last 3 days & nights in the Sacred Valley, slowly making our way downstream (down the urubamba river, the one that parallels the Milky Way) from Pisac to Yucay to Ollantaytambo.
Pisac is a more dry, less dramatic end of the valley, with a large well known very dramatic ruin perched way up high (scary! if you have recently lost your contact lenses and run to fear of heights anyway), above a town that is a big tourist market destination. Our main job that day was hanging out in cafes that serve cheesecake, doing some light hearted bargaining (eg for musical instruments) & a little hiking. In Pisac, we had more than expected numbers of encounters with American women in their 50s who have moved here because they embraced Andean spirituality and shamanism, this was kind of a surprise. I guess The Celestine Prophecies still lives, as does ayahuascanism. We were happy to make our way downriver from Pisac, although if you were going to stay there we think the Pisac Hostal would be pretty nice (we paid more than we would like for a place that is probably great when it´s not under construction, the Paz Y Luz, a ways out of town and run by an American woman that we liked a whole lot but whose hotel-keeping attention seemed to be elsewhere), and one very cool thing were these enormous spanish ovens (much, much larger than Hansel and Gretel) that keep baking empanadas filled with onions, spinach).
The next day we found a fancier place, about 20 km downstream, a ways from any town and on a place on the Urubamba where it goes through rapids. It was a new hotel, with pretty grounds, very tasteful high-ceilingedrooms with balconies over the river, and almost no guests right now. It´s called the Mirador de los Incas. From there we went walking downriver but found the next town was pretty far away so we ended up taking colectivos, for a sol, down to the towns of Yucay (not much there) and Urubamba, and then a little 3 wheeled 2-stroke engine dealy-bob to our favorite hotel from last visit, the Sol y Luna (fabulous but totally booked with Europeans), from where we hiked up a side canyon, the Pumahuanca, a nice place with fields growing alfalfa, lettuce and corn among coppiced eucalyptus groves with pretty creeks. After our hike we went down the road a bit farther to our favorite lunch place, the Tunupa. Amazingly, all the gourmet restaurants run on reputation only, word of mouth, none have actual signs posted along the road. Once again at the Tunupa we feasted in outdoor colonnades on the best ceviche we have ever had (4 or 5 kinds of fish and conch with tasty lime-chile dressing, topped with toasted corn and fresh herbs) and then about 12 kinds of appetizer salads, 4 or 5 main course selections and 12 desserts. Then rested in their garden on the river. This week in Peru seems to be Take Your Favorite Nun to Lunch Week so in some of the ruins, and then at this restaurant, we saw lots of plump cheery ladies in their white habits and black headdresses porking out and then climbing trees. When, after lunch, we dragged ourselves back to the MIrador de Los Incas, I think we lost consciousness until dinner time, where we were the only guests in this beautiful high-beam-ceilinged restaurant so we had about 3 courses hand cooked for us and served just to us, with a freshly-laid eucalyptus fire. It was kind of like being lords of the manor. (This hotel cost $90, we talked them into $80 since they were empty, dinner was a little pricey but very haute cuisine, breakfast (as always here) was included, breakfast had fresh-baked french rolls, hot eggs with ham & cheese and pineapple juice).
This morning, another 20 km down stream, we came back to Ollantaytambo. This town still has a lot of the original Inca walls defining the towns streets and houses, and people from high up villages near by, like Huilloc, who still take a lot of pride in wearing handwoven clothing with lots of reds and with lots of detail, come down for the day.It has very beautiful high canyon walls and mountains and lots of ruins, most perched improbably high, made of lovely stone often granite but sometimes this orange-hued andesite. It has lots of terraces and large green fields in the flats, down by the river and the railroad.
Ollantaytambo is a big tourist destination too but we didn´t mind. Today a lot of the tourists are large groups of peruvian students on what´s called a ´promocion´ which seems to be a major tour-the-country field trip you take when you are graduating into the equivalents of 7th grade or 12th grade. A lot of parents and younger sibs come too. The teenagers found us fascinating, since they mostly come from non-touristed parts of peru, and wanted their photos taken with us, especially Craig, who must stand out in his special beaver Raiders of the Lost Ark hat, leather jacket, safari pants and light light hair.
It was a rainy fresh day so the local streets which have traditional Incan water gutters flowing through them were fresh and clean and the streams and Inca baths were all noisy and lovely. Both the rain, and the spouts flowing through the Incan fountains, are very soft and it was fun to play with the water. We spent a lot of time in the local ruins especially in the valley floor parts which run right into farmers cornfields and Incan terraces that now serve as goat and cow pastures. There were small kids there tending the animals but mostly taking advantage of the flat terraces to play that old game of hoops, where you use a stick to keep a hoop upright as you chase it along. We didn´t actually do much today, just covered a lot of ground doing short walks and drinking coffee and buying coffee for curious peruvian tourists. We hope to have a fresh pizza dinner (it really does taste good in the Andean clay beehive ovens), maybe some more herb-stuffed trout, and then wake up tomorrow to pancakes with elderberry jam (mermelada de sauco), which is a specialty of our hotel, Munay Tika ($30 US for matrimonial, $25 for double).
Thats probably it for our travelog, we´ll see you at home!
http://craiginperu.blogspot.com
We decided against spending extra $ to go to Ayacucho since this would have involved a night in Lima and some $$ so instead we have spent the last 3 days & nights in the Sacred Valley, slowly making our way downstream (down the urubamba river, the one that parallels the Milky Way) from Pisac to Yucay to Ollantaytambo.
Pisac is a more dry, less dramatic end of the valley, with a large well known very dramatic ruin perched way up high (scary! if you have recently lost your contact lenses and run to fear of heights anyway), above a town that is a big tourist market destination. Our main job that day was hanging out in cafes that serve cheesecake, doing some light hearted bargaining (eg for musical instruments) & a little hiking. In Pisac, we had more than expected numbers of encounters with American women in their 50s who have moved here because they embraced Andean spirituality and shamanism, this was kind of a surprise. I guess The Celestine Prophecies still lives, as does ayahuascanism. We were happy to make our way downriver from Pisac, although if you were going to stay there we think the Pisac Hostal would be pretty nice (we paid more than we would like for a place that is probably great when it´s not under construction, the Paz Y Luz, a ways out of town and run by an American woman that we liked a whole lot but whose hotel-keeping attention seemed to be elsewhere), and one very cool thing were these enormous spanish ovens (much, much larger than Hansel and Gretel) that keep baking empanadas filled with onions, spinach).
The next day we found a fancier place, about 20 km downstream, a ways from any town and on a place on the Urubamba where it goes through rapids. It was a new hotel, with pretty grounds, very tasteful high-ceilingedrooms with balconies over the river, and almost no guests right now. It´s called the Mirador de los Incas. From there we went walking downriver but found the next town was pretty far away so we ended up taking colectivos, for a sol, down to the towns of Yucay (not much there) and Urubamba, and then a little 3 wheeled 2-stroke engine dealy-bob to our favorite hotel from last visit, the Sol y Luna (fabulous but totally booked with Europeans), from where we hiked up a side canyon, the Pumahuanca, a nice place with fields growing alfalfa, lettuce and corn among coppiced eucalyptus groves with pretty creeks. After our hike we went down the road a bit farther to our favorite lunch place, the Tunupa. Amazingly, all the gourmet restaurants run on reputation only, word of mouth, none have actual signs posted along the road. Once again at the Tunupa we feasted in outdoor colonnades on the best ceviche we have ever had (4 or 5 kinds of fish and conch with tasty lime-chile dressing, topped with toasted corn and fresh herbs) and then about 12 kinds of appetizer salads, 4 or 5 main course selections and 12 desserts. Then rested in their garden on the river. This week in Peru seems to be Take Your Favorite Nun to Lunch Week so in some of the ruins, and then at this restaurant, we saw lots of plump cheery ladies in their white habits and black headdresses porking out and then climbing trees. When, after lunch, we dragged ourselves back to the MIrador de Los Incas, I think we lost consciousness until dinner time, where we were the only guests in this beautiful high-beam-ceilinged restaurant so we had about 3 courses hand cooked for us and served just to us, with a freshly-laid eucalyptus fire. It was kind of like being lords of the manor. (This hotel cost $90, we talked them into $80 since they were empty, dinner was a little pricey but very haute cuisine, breakfast (as always here) was included, breakfast had fresh-baked french rolls, hot eggs with ham & cheese and pineapple juice).
This morning, another 20 km down stream, we came back to Ollantaytambo. This town still has a lot of the original Inca walls defining the towns streets and houses, and people from high up villages near by, like Huilloc, who still take a lot of pride in wearing handwoven clothing with lots of reds and with lots of detail, come down for the day.It has very beautiful high canyon walls and mountains and lots of ruins, most perched improbably high, made of lovely stone often granite but sometimes this orange-hued andesite. It has lots of terraces and large green fields in the flats, down by the river and the railroad.
Ollantaytambo is a big tourist destination too but we didn´t mind. Today a lot of the tourists are large groups of peruvian students on what´s called a ´promocion´ which seems to be a major tour-the-country field trip you take when you are graduating into the equivalents of 7th grade or 12th grade. A lot of parents and younger sibs come too. The teenagers found us fascinating, since they mostly come from non-touristed parts of peru, and wanted their photos taken with us, especially Craig, who must stand out in his special beaver Raiders of the Lost Ark hat, leather jacket, safari pants and light light hair.
It was a rainy fresh day so the local streets which have traditional Incan water gutters flowing through them were fresh and clean and the streams and Inca baths were all noisy and lovely. Both the rain, and the spouts flowing through the Incan fountains, are very soft and it was fun to play with the water. We spent a lot of time in the local ruins especially in the valley floor parts which run right into farmers cornfields and Incan terraces that now serve as goat and cow pastures. There were small kids there tending the animals but mostly taking advantage of the flat terraces to play that old game of hoops, where you use a stick to keep a hoop upright as you chase it along. We didn´t actually do much today, just covered a lot of ground doing short walks and drinking coffee and buying coffee for curious peruvian tourists. We hope to have a fresh pizza dinner (it really does taste good in the Andean clay beehive ovens), maybe some more herb-stuffed trout, and then wake up tomorrow to pancakes with elderberry jam (mermelada de sauco), which is a specialty of our hotel, Munay Tika ($30 US for matrimonial, $25 for double).
Thats probably it for our travelog, we´ll see you at home!
posted by Craig and Amy at 4:22 PM
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