Looking Regal
We met some nice people at Willka Tika that invited us to go to Pisaq (aka Pisac) so we figured we’d be sociable and cough up the money for the boleto turistico to see some of these Sacred Valley ruins. Fortunately Kim had an old student ID and I just said I was a student and showed them my Washington drivers license so they let us buy the student ticket for half price.
Pisaq’s ruins turned out to be surprisingly large. From Willka Tika it was only a few hours to get there. The ruins are high up above the town of Pisaq and have some nice views of the valley’s colorful crops. We took a taxi to the top and walked down. The stairs down were pretty steep and fun. Kim posed in a few more of the wall niches. There’s some cool water systems near the main temple too.
Terracing Galore
Back in Pisaq we walked around the huge market and our new friends bought some stuff to take home with them. I’m a little bored by all the markets by now as all the knick knacks start to look the same to me. We heard there were cuy (guinea pig) castles somewhere but didn’t find them.
Since we now had the ticket to see some ruins, the next day Kim and I went to Ollantaytambo to see their ruins. Quite a bit smaller, but also pretty cool, they sit above the town too. There’s some interesting stone work that seems weird and I didn’t understand the purpose. We also saw a really weird bug that has something that looks like a protective shell.
I think by now we’re pretty well ruined out though. Soon enough we’ll be back to the US and its strip malls and highways. A land where ancient is anything over 100 years old.