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Our hotel, the Pisac Inn, is located right on the market with a balcony looking out over the street activities and the market. A perfect spot to relax and start to have the vacation feeling!
The jet lag kicked in, so we took a quick nap before we visited the market. A large part of the market was filled with everything from cloth in local patterns, masks, ponchos and sweaters of Alpaca wool… or that is what they claim it to be anyway.
On Sundays however there is also a little grocery market where the locals buy and sell their potatoes and vegetables. A very colourful sight to see and such a different world from Sweden.
Market outside our hotel
Trip in the mountain – Pisac Ruins
We woke up early and hade a nice long breakfast on the little terrace outside the Pisac Inn watching the local market coming alive. Today we are off to the ruins of Pisac. The ruins are high above the town so we took a taxi up the mountain (+500 m) which cost about 20 Soles (8 $ / 50 SEK). You could walk all the way up, but I wouldn’t advise that! Pisac is located at approx. 3000 metres and hiking down hill is exhausting enough at these heights when you are not used to it.
Enthousiastic we started our descend down the trail. There were several interesting archeology sites on the way down; a kinda ”mini” Machu Picchu. Amazing to imaging that people lived this far up the steep mountain. The first archeological site was a sort of fortification. The middle site was a complex of temples. You could clearly see the difference in structure and building techniques. The final was the remains of a village of the Inca period.
The village was located in a beautiful landscape and the drive to our next stop, the Salt Mines at Maras was very enjoyable. We saw the locals plowing the fields with the help of oxes, donkeys carrying hay and snow topped mountains. We didn’t have that much expectations regarding the Salt Mines, but we were happily surprised. The complex was large and fascinating to watch with lots of terrased ponds.
Ollantaytambo
During the Inca Empire, Ollantaytambo was the royal estate of Emperor Pachacuti who conquered the region, built the town and a ceremonial center here.
The Incas built several storehouses out of fieldstone on the hills surrounding the town. Their location at high altitudes, where there is more wind and lower temperatures, defended their contents against decay. To enhance this effect, the houses called qollqas feature ventilation systems. It is believed that they were used to store the production of the agricultural terraces built around the site.
Ollantaytambo eller Ullantaytanpu, vilket ungefär betyder Min härskares förråd, tror man är det enda återstående exemplet på för-columbiansk stadsplanering. De 6 stenarna högst upp på befästningen som bildar Soltemplet, väger cirka 50 ton vardera och står tätt inhop.
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Galapagos 2011 