My final morning in Cusco was spent walking around the markets in the sunshine, and I bought myself a wooly hat for the trek and a pair of ‘happy pants’, some funky multicoloured stripy baggy trousers. I also bought a nice alpaca cardigan decorated with little llamas across it.
A five hour bus journey early in the afternoon took us to our next destination – Ollyantaytambo in the Sacred Valley, 2,792 metres above sea level. Described as a living Inca town, the residents still strive to maintain ancient traditions such as tilling their fields with foot ploughs, and people have lived on the cobblestone streets since the 13th century. This was our last and final stop before beginning the trek towards Machu Picchu the next day, and arriving into one of the squares the town looked like it wouldn’t be out of place in a kind of Inca ‘Wild Wild West’ movie, with the low buildings, parallel streets, main courtyard and wooden shutters and doors of the Inca buildings.
The hostel was lovely, with a pretty roof terrace offering views above the rooftops of the town, all of which had little ceramic bulls on them which are supposed to bring good luck and fertility to the household. In the middle of the hostel was a little courtyard where flowers and cacti grew and a cat with a very loud and persistent meow strolled about. My room had three single beds in it with heavy throws embroidered in a cream and brown pattern, the same print on a hanging on the wall and a TV and DVD player.
Once settled we decided to explore the area, which was bathed in a bright sunlight all across the valley. We began to climb up the hillside, where high up were some Inca storehouse ruins built out of field stones. Here grains would have been stored, the high altitude meaning more wind and lower temperatures defended the contents against decay. Grain would be poured in the windows on the uphill side of each building, then emptied through the downhill side window.
I was feeling energetic having had time now to adjust to the altitude and didn’t find the steep climb difficult, although in places there were no paths, only bare rock, and you really had to watch your footing as there were no rails or anything to hold on to. Every section we climbed the view of the town got better and better and I tried to count the squares and longitudinal roads to work out where in the jumble of buildings below my hostel was located. Once I reached the storehouses I had a walk around, marvelling at how the Incas could have built anything so high up and with no easy path to it. I could also see from here another ancient Inca site, the Terraces of Pumatallis, which are said to be built in the shape of a llama, and from high above that shape was much easier to see!
Coming back down to the town we had dinner and afterwards at the hotel everyone decided to relax and watch the Pirates of the Caribbean II, as it was the only English speaking DVD we could find, and we all piled in to my room. Sadly, on the tiny TV the large Spanish subtitles flashing up somewhat distracted from the main action and gradually people drifted off to bed one by one.
The next morning we were to leave the hostel at 7am, ready for the drive up into the mountains and to begin the Lares trek! It was the end of hot showers and comfort, for a short while at least.