Saturday our family took a trip down to the Sacred Valley of the Incas. The tour covered four different ruins, and a Salt Mine. The cost of this trip, in case you are interested in visiting, was 70 Soles/person plus the Boleto Turistico. Way cheaper than purchasing this "experience" through Airbnb.
On the topic of Airbnb, we are extremely fortunate to have amazing Airbnb hosts, not only do they respond to all our needs and inquiries in minutes, but they are also able to set up tour excursions for our family. If you are ever travelling to Cusco I HIGHLY recommend staying with Herber and his family. We would be happy to share Herber's listing, he is pretty awesome.
Our host took us to La Plaza de Armas nice and early (6:45 am) where we met our guide, and transport, and headed to Chinchero. Our guide Raul was like a walking encyclopedia. He was knowledgeable, and offered his tour in both English, and Spanish.
Chinchero was breath taking. We visited both ruins, and a textile factory, where we saw the process of making Alpaca wool into actual clothing items. One of the many things I appreciated about Raul was that he was very considerate about my Mom's limited ability to get around. He explained the history behind the area. We learn about the troubles between Huascar and Atahuallpa. Inca Huascar order his brother Atahuallpa to be killed so that he could become an Inca ruler. We all have messed up families, eh?
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| Colonial arch over ruins in Chinchero |
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| From the ruins towards the town of Chinchero |
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| Terran getting his first real taste of Inca Ruins |
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| Wyatt, Terran, Maija and Irma in Chinchero |
I apologize for the picture overload, but this place was truly amazing. The skill and industry of the Inca culture is just amazing. Now on to the textile factory.
An indigenous lady showed us how they wash, treat, and dye the alpaca wool. Our guide explained to us that in this communities it is actually the women who are the bread winners. They wash, dye, spin, and sell the wool, and textile products of the area, the men simply support them in these roles. The lady giving us the presentation was really funny, in the end she showed us a bone, and had us guess where the bone might have come from? Well, she said "this is the bone of a tourist that did not buy anything at the textile center"
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| A local showing us a natural shampoo that the local women use to wash the alpaca wool |
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| Peruvian weaving |
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| Terran and Maija behind a guinea pig house at the weaving center. |
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| This is all made with natural dyes. Purple corn, worms from cacti, various flowers, etc. |
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| The textile center |
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| Outside the textile center |
Maija has MANY bucket list items for this trip. But one of her number one items was visiting the Inca ruins of Moray, and that is where we were headed to next. Maija had previously learned that this ruins were agricultural experimental sites. A very simple explanation of what the Incas did here was, that they would plant seeds at the bottom, and over many season acclimatize the seeds by moving them up the terraces, so they could plant seeds from the jungle in the high mountains of the Andes.
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| A dream come true for this little girl, Moray! |
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| From the bottom to the top there is a 15 C difference. We however were not allowed to check this fact ;( |
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| Terran and Maija in Moray |
Then off to the Salt Mines of Maras. We learned that the people of Maras only work for half the year (during the dry season), and that these mines cannot be sold, only inherited. So if you are interested in joining the salt mine industry here, the only way to do it, is by marrying a local...Sorry Wyatt, you are out of luck, you are stuck with me FOREVER.
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| A view of the Salt Mines from our transport |
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| Irma in Maras, this one is for your Oriana and Vanessa |
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| Down by the Salt pools |
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| My Mom chatting it up with a local ;) |
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| Workers at the Salt pools |
FYI, the tour also included a buffet lunch in the town of Urubamba, which we were very excited about since Urubamba is our next stop. Now off to Ollataytambo.
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| Inka's House restaurant in Urubamba, no guinea pig here. |
Ollataytambo is the last stop in the Sacred Valley before heading up in the train to Machu Picchu. For many reasons we have decided to forgo Machu Picchu, and so far we are enjoying checking out all the other less known Inca ruins in the area.
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| Ollataytambo |
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| Maija up in the Temple of the Sun in Ollataytambo |
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| A beautiful Alpaca in Ollataytambo |
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| More pictures with our furry friends |
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| My Mom in Ollataytambo |
After Ollataytambo our last stop was Pisac, and then a silver manufacturing store, and market.
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| It is hard to capture a Sunset here. |
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| Pisac |
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| Maija and her Lita taking a much needed rest in Pisac |
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| We run into Manco Capac at the top of the ruins in Pisac |
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| Our guide Raul showing us some shells, and stones used in the local jewelry |
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| A sample of some local jewelry |
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| Perhaps this year's family photo. That little lamb kept licking my ear |
I love that family picture :)
ReplyDeleteBut why is that picture for Ori and Nessa?
My Mom said Ori wanted to go to Maras, I can’t remember why I said Nessa,
ReplyDeleteMaybe for the textiles? *shrug*
ReplyDelete