The Sacred Valley is carved by the Urubamba River, and includes everything between the southeastern town of Pisac, which we saw yesterday, and the Inca fortress Ollantaytambo in the northwest. (The river flows northwest.) Our hotel is in Yucay.
From The Sacred Valley |
Today we began with a trip into the mountains to the south, to Chincheros, where we visited a weaving cooperative.
From The Sacred Valley |
Next we went to the end of the valley to Ollantaytambo. The Andean people built their civilizations in this order:
1. Find a glacier, to serve as a source of water.
2. Build walled terraces on the sides of the mountain, watered by the glacier. Grow crops there.
3. Build the urban center at the bottom of the mountain.
4. Go back up to the top of the terraces, build a temple.
Ollantaytambo is an example of this, and it's still in basically the same condition it was 500 years ago when the Spanish invaded. The city itself has narrow streets and buildings with Inca foundations, but Spanish-style (lower quality) masonry built on top. The Spanish spent two years in Cusco before invading the Sacred Valley, so the Inca had time to prepare: you can see that they stopped in the middle of building the temples, and instead built lookouts and fortresses at the top of the development. Unfortunately, they still lost.
From The Sacred Valley |
On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a ceramics studio
From The Sacred Valley |
Click here for the whole day's album.
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