The Sacred Valley of Peru, located just outside of Cuzco, is packed with fascinating archaeological sites. Many of these sites are included in Cuzco’s multi-day ticket and are absolutely worth visiting if given a chance. Kirsten and I visited 3 of these sites, Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and Moray.
We took an early minibus on a Sunday morning to Pisac from Cuzco for about $2. Sunday is Pisac’s market day, so the city was packed with tourists when we arrived. The market is mostly tourist junk but it’s fun to wander around for a bit before going to the ruins. When we were done with the market, we took a cab to the entrance to the site. It is possible to walk to the top, but having done that on my previous visit, we opted for the cab as it took 20 minutes instead of 3+ hours of uphill walking. Pisac is a fantastic site located on top of a mountain, and it’s very well preserved. There are a series of agricultural terraces toward the entrance which descend down the mountain. The site is almost divided into two sections which are about 15 minutes walking apart. The higher portion has less impressive stonework and is on top of the mountain peak, while the second part is in a more level area and has very fine stonework. The lower section has the characteristic Inca doors and windows, as well as some ridiculous stones carved in very difficult ways. After touring the site we hiked back to the bottom, which took about an hour and a half. By the time we got to the bottom we were starving so we went to one of the tourist restaurants that was open and had lunch before heading back to Cuzco for the evening.
The following day we took another minibus to Ollantaytambo, where we were spending the night before our early morning train to Machu Picchu. I stayed in Ollantaytambo for four days on my previous visit, and wanted to spend a night there as I really enjoyed the laid back and historical atmosphere of the town. Ollantaytambo was the last Inca stronghold to fall to the Spanish, and most of the town is still intact like it was when the Inca were there. The main site in town is extremely impressive, and I find it comparable to Machu Picchu in terms of archaeological sites worth visiting. We grabbed lunch at Heart’s Cafe (best place in Ollantaytambo) before hiking around the ruins, and spend a few hours wandering the site. Once we finished at the official site, we hiked up the opposing mountain to visit some other Inca ruins and take some pics of the entire fortress of Ollantaytambo. We ended up taking a few wrong turns and found ourselves on top of the mountain, which took a while to climb back down. By the time we finished with the ruins it was getting late so we found dinner and went to bed early for the early train to Machu Picchu, which I wrote about in a separate post.
The morning we got back from Machu Picchu we booked a tour of Moray and the Maras Salineras through our hostel. I normally don’t like taking tours of sites, however it was substantially cheaper than any other method of getting there so we took it. I didn’t get a chance to visit on my previous trip to Cuzco, so this was one of the only things I didn’t repeat on this trip. Moray was an agricultural testing center for the Inca, where they could grow lowland crops as well as highland crops in the series of concentric circles. The deeper the circle the warmer the microclimate, which allowed for non-native crops to grow well in the site. There were three of these circular fields, only one of which was fairly large. The tour only stopped here for about an hour before continuing on to Salineras.
The Salineras of Maras are a series of salt pools which are created by a natural spring of salt water which runs over these shallow pools and forms a brine. The water evaporates and leaves a thick crust of salt which is then harvested and sold around the world. Different families own each of the 1500+ pools at the site, and it’s the biggest economic input in the town, both from tourism and salt exports. The area was really pretty and the different colors of salt allowed for really good photos of the salt and surrounding valley. This was definitely one of my favorite places in the Cuzco area due to how bizarre and beautiful it was.
All three sites are must-see destinations for anyone visiting Cuzco and the Sacred Valley region.
bioarchnomad 