September 14th-16th 2015
i’m joined in Cusco by my friend Natalie from South Africa and Australia who I first met down in Puerto Varas Chile, then again for a good chunk of time in Santiago, including a memorable birthday party.
We’ve got a few days together here in Cusco before she heads north and I head back into Bolivia to meet the first friend from home to come visit me in South America.
We decide to explore as much as we can in one day, though we start late, meeting at the hostel with the best name and ball pit in South America Milhouse hostel at around 11 o’clock with no specific plan.
After a brief discussion we head to a collectivo stop a few blocks away, the first destination in mind being Ollantaytambo, one of the more impressive set of ruins in the vast but expensive sacred valley tourist ticket. (130 Soles for 7 day admission to all 15 sites. For information on where to buy it check here)
The collectivo is a long ride (10-15 soles each) and we opt for the more comfortable and slightly more expensive option of going in a car rather than a mini bus, but the driver is friendly and just under two hours later we’re climbing out into the central square of the charming little town of Ollantaytambo complete with it’s very own Kwik-E-Mart which i somehow forgot to photograph but here’s one from the internet.
The ruins aren’t hard to find looming over the town halfway up twin peaks and just a few blocks from the square, so after a brief stop for Natalie to buy an awesome hat, we head there and flash our expensive Sacred Valley Tickets.
The ruins aren’t on the scale of Machu Picchu, but this doesn’t mean they’re not impressive. It also doesn’t mean they’re not annoying to climb up at the altitude, which is giving me more problems than before, probably because this time I flew into Cusco (Star Peru 120 CAD) instead of bussing. Still the incredibly intact ancient Incan Stone work and dizzying views form the top make it worth the effort.
Eventually we head along a thin path winding alongside the mountain for a better view of the town below and the ruins across from us, before conveniently following that same path down to the base of the ruins. Where I once again appreciate the way the Incans worked with water.
This done we check our time which is quickly running out and decide we’d best head to the main attraction of the day, one I’ve already visited, the otherworldly Salinas de Maras.
We head through a long line of Andean artesian stalls to the main square of town where we find another car waiting to go. We negotiate a collectivo fair to the turn off of the main highway to Maras where, since the sky is looking ominously like rain we agree to pay the 40 Soles (20 each) for a private taxi to take us there, wait for an hour and then bring us back to the main highway. As it works out the Sacred Valley and Salinas is one of the few times where doing a big organised tour is significantly cheaper and easier than doing it on your own. Oh well live and learn, besides negotiating prices and navigating the south american mazes of transportation is fun in it’s own way.
One advantage of going independently is our friendly and curious taxi driver, who is more than willing to stop up above the Salinas where you can take the best pictures of this natural marvel. Thousands of the glittering white salt pools lay sprawled out below us, a few being worked by the locals who own them (you have to be from Maras or married to someone from Maras to own a pool), despite the ever threatening sky, the pictures are yet again, terrific.
After a short stop we head down and I lead Natalie through the maze of Salt pools repeating what information I can recall from my tour. All the pools are fed by one salty stream and a complex system of irrigation canals, they produce three distinct types of salt here, and it is cultivated only during the six month dry season. Still a place like this the information is more or less a bonus, as it’s easy to just fall into the awe of the other worldly landscape. The stormy sky somehow suits the place more than blue ever could.
Our time running out and the sky rumbling with thunder we hurry up through the gauntlet of souvenir stalls where Natalie buys a bunch of small packets of the artesian salt as gifts before we climb back into the taxi and drive back to the main highway.
Funnily enough at the intersection we end up boarding a bus heading back to the village of Maras before taking a series of back roads back to Cusco, but at 4 Soles each it’s much cheaper than a collectivo and gives us an tantalizing glimpse of the rural lifestyle here.
We make it back to Cusco and find some diner at a street burger vendor where I randomly meet a friend from Pichilemu Chile enjoying a burger. The next day, Natalie’s sacred valley ticket has expired so we spend the day wandering around Cusco, through the impressive if overfilled by tourists Plaza de Armas and up past some fountains and still more souvenir shops into a interesting but underwhelming Museo Inka one block from the Plaza de Armas Here’s some pictures from my time around Cusco.
