inka ruins: aroung cusco and sacred valley

no tour this day. there are a million tours to visit the inka ruins around cusco and the sacred valley... and of course, i wanted to do it on my own. you know, to take my time, get lost, freak out, get some rain, calm down, walk more than the rest and have fun.

pisac:
i took a taxi, that took me to a bus that took me to the town of pisac, where i would later take another taxi to take me to the ruins. pisac is famous for its market, and guess what, same as all the markets in cusco, but over-prized. 18soles for lunch!? no thanks, where is the real market?

for 4soles (less than $2) i ate soup and frijoles (beans), rice and ribs. :)

up in the ruins, i had no map of the citadel but a police officer offered to be my guide! david, yes, read it in english, that is how he introduced himself. the citadel had many terraces for agriculture where on the bottom they would plant corn and on the top, potatoes. the temperature difference was that much.



these are inka showers or baths

the nicer buildings were for the royalty or important people and for sacred places. (look at the difference between these two.)



at this point, david had to go back. he said that the trail would take me directly into the city of pisac so i kept walking. of course there were many trails, and i started following my instinct. i walked downhill for about 20 minutes until i reached a dead end. it was raining and i was 2970m above sea level (masl), so going back up was not very appealing. but i did, i started walking. after about 15 minutes, when i was already out of breath and freaking out, the inka gods sent a young couple that was heading to pisac. (yay!) 

 so we walked for about an hour, downhill, my knee screaming for help (remember colca?) but i was so happy for not being lost!

so happy, even if it was raining, even crossing the little bridge, even going down the ladder on a terrace,dear friend, i was happy.

tambomachay:
the rain kept coming, more intensely, but hey, i need to maximize the use of my time and i am here already! tambomachay is two quechua words that mean temple of water. here, the inka had their baths stricted to noble people. i could not keep up to the pool because of the rain. :(

but i ran into some llamas, or alpahacas?

 

puka pukara:
the name of this place means red fort... but there are different theories whether it was a castle, a sacred place or a hunting lodge. 

 

i smiled a lot here. it has an awesome view of the valley, there were birds singing (they are everywhere), wild flowers... i don't know what this place was, but i smiled a lot here... it is as if i need to keep reminding myself that this is real, that i am doing this, because let me tell you, this kind of freedom and excitement, it feels unreal.

so, to add more cheesyness and a bad picture to the story, as i hopped on a bus all wet and cold and smiley, a rainbow showed up by the ruins. let's talk about happy sandrita ;)

saqsayhuamán:
the bus was taking me to cusco, until i realized that the sun was coming out and saqsayhuamán was on the way. "hey chofer! can you stop by the ruins!?" we had already past them, so i walked uphill just for about 15minutes. let me tell you, it was worth it. like many inka complex, saqsayhuamán is built with rock from 15 to 30 km away, and they are huge! they were built with only natural rope, stone hammers and bronze chisels.

  

i walked for about an hour, slowly but steady. while walking, i found a flower. what a flower, because almost every men that walked by me, asked me if someone gave it to me, or if i give flowers to myself. ...well, of course i give flowers to myself, and pretty ones. 

it was a great tour-less day. a really great one, rain and all.