In Ruins: the Sacred Valley

"One problem for serious-minded archaeologists is that ancient Peru seems to have flirted with every element of archaeology that the public most like to sensationalise and which as a consequence professionals like to downplay: human sacrifice, stargazing, wild sex, psychedelic drugs and the mummification of the dead, let alone leaving treasure concealed in pyramids."

-- Hugh Thomson, Cochineal Red

It may look like Lhasa, but the Inca were no Buddhists

Even if you're not into the sensationalism, you might think Machu Picchu has it all: lawn-mowing llamas, massive rock, sun worship, vizcachas.

But there's more to Peru than the greatest hit. We hopped back on our Peru Rail train and alighted at Ollantaytambo, which is a small and beautiful village near the confluence of the Patakancha and Urubamba rivers.

Ollantaytambo was the royal estate of Emperor Patchacuti, who conquered the region, built the town, and moved many a stone. The town itself is full of Inca walls and waterways, and has been consistently inhabited for nearly 700 years!

What remains of the Inca compound is above the town, set around terraced hillsides with an elaborate irrigation system. It, like much of the Urubamba river valley, catches beautiful late-day light.

A few days in the so-called Sacred Valley offered a nice way to slow down before returning to Buenos Aires.

If we understand it correctly, these bulbous extrusions allowed greater leverage when moving the stones -- usually they were then removed once the stones were in their final place

The chakana, or three-stepped cross, is faintly visible at right. This was a symbol the Inca borrowed from an earlier culture, along with the meaning of the "trilogy" their architecture sometimes refers to: the snake of the underworld, the puma on earth, and the condor in the heavens

A dry waterway

Going up the ingenious stairs in one terrace: just long flat rocks extending out -- these are used today, too

A working waterway

A tiny oasis around another fountain

Ferns aside, this valley is generally very dry and warm during the day, quite unlike the lushness around Machu Picchu. (And like any desert, cold at night.) Hugh Thomson, whose book we were reading as we were there, compares it to southern France. He lived here for a year and so it is possible this is wishful thinking on his part, but in any case it was a good place to hike.

One thorny plant thriving in the dry climate

Lupine, familiar from dry California

From Ollantaytambo, we hiked an hour or two back along a valley, contouring among crop terraces and surprising the occasional goat, to reach another Inca site called Pumamarca. There was no entrance fee, there were no signs, and there was no one there at all, so we wandered around guessing at the function of the various crumbling walls, then had a picnic.

The remains of the Pumamarca site

On our final morning in Ollantaytambo, some wrangling with a cab driver got us a ride to the Urubamba bus station. From there we caught a slow but pleasant local bus down the Sacred Valley to Pisac, our last stop before returning to Cusco.

Pisac was another small village set below steep Inca terraces. Usually people bus up and walk down to explore the extensive ruins, but we figured we'd walk up. Turned out this was one of those enterprises where, when you reach the top, you're glad that at the bottom you didn't know how far you'd need to go. Anyway, it offered spectacular views.

Rings made of stone on either side of a doorway -- perhaps a red velvet rope passed across...

One especially interesting thing about this site is that, at the top and across a valley, there are pocked cliffs that acted as an Inca burial ground. I don't know whether the holes have always been there or whether they were made by grave-robbers, but it's ultimately an enormous vertical cemetery.

The scale may be tough to see, but the green stuff is trees -- it's big

After sitting up top, watching the early sunset (early sunsets and late sunrises are an occupational hazard of valleys), and listening to the evening sounds of the town drift up, we descended to Pisac for the night. In the morning, we wandered through the lively market.

Traditional dress... and yes, that squash is bigger than that baby

Powders for painting and dyeing: the colors they make aren't necessarily the colors they look -- want purple? try the green

After almost a week of climbing Inca stairs and relaxing in the Sacred Valley, it was time to go. We shouldered our bags, walked to the edge of town, and got back on a crowded minibus to stand and sway our way up the switchbacks to Cusco.