The Sacred Valley of the Incas

There are a few ways to get to Machu Picchu. The most famous is the Inca Trail (which actually there are many Inca Trails but this one to Machu Picchu is the most famous) which is I think a 4 day hike but you have to book it like 3 or 4 months is advance because they only allow so many people to go at a time. The others seemed really cool and I would have liked to do one but because i went with my friends and they had limited time and motivation to hike I just went with them. The other popular choices are Sulkantay, which I think would have been similar to Condoriri or Ausangate through the mountains for 5 days. Then there is the Jungle trek that starts out with downhill biking and then continues to hike for 2 days up to Machu Picchu. We decided to do it the touristy way and take a day to go through the Sacred valley to visit other Inca sites. Then take a train to the base of Machu Picchu where we would sleep and walk up a few hours in the morning to spend the whole day at Machu Picchu. We would then take a train back to Cusco at night.

The Sacred Valley is a beautiful valley in the Andes. Because the Incas were sun worshipers this valley was sacred to them because it runs perfectly east to west and so it gets sun all day long.

Our first stop was in Pisaq to see the ruins of an Inca village at Pisaq.
This is a great place to see their system of terraces. Our guide explained to us that they built the terraces starting from the bottom to the top and that they're not only good for agriculture but that they help stabilize the side of the mountain for the village on the top.
Some of the other villages were visible sitting on top of other hillsides. I was really enjoying taking pictures with the 20x zoom on my new canon. You can also see the roads on the hillside leading to the other village.

Walking though the village felt like a maze because some of the alleys between the houses are really narrow and don't always lead to a main road. Or I don't even know if there is a main road but I got lost trying to find my way back out and was late to the bus. Our guide tried to make me sing but I had a really bad cold and couldn't sing even if I wanted to so I had to teach the bus some Chinese...it was the only thing I could thing of to satisfy them.(I was never late after that.)

The next stop (well after the market in Pisaq and lunch) was the ruins of the sun temple in Ollantaytambo. Even though it was never finished because the Spanish invaded, it was still a very impressive site.
The terraces leading up the the temple platform are what catch your eye first.


From the top you can look out over the city of Ollantaytambo. Also from the other side you can see the quarry where the Incas brought the huge stones up from the valley.

That night we slept in Aguas Calientes at the base of Machu Picchu waiting for the next day.