Sacred Valley Tour (2 days)

All the volunteers were picked up at the volunteer house and drove by bus to Chinchero. A small town known for its potato (the Chinchero). Here we visited the church built during the 1500´s by the Spanish during their invasion. We then walked to the wool spinning and weaving area. Here it was explained how the alpaca and llama wool is washed (with a natural soap made from a root) and dyed using natural products (leaves, black corn, different flowers), salt and lemon are used to change the colours. I bought a hat for Erin´s twins here and some llama slippers to use at the volunteer house as it is so cold at night.

After this we went on to Ollantaytambo via a lookout over the Sacred Valley. It was a magnificent site, we saw a para glider take off and immediately rise way above his original starting point on the thermals.
We had lunch at a beautiful Spanish mansion with live Peruvian music and a lovely garden by the River.

At Ollantaytambo (another Inkan site) we climbed hundreds of steps to reach the religious site at the top. The site was built for agriculture. They had built terraces all the way up the mountain which were watered by the natural springs from the glacier on the other side of the mountain. The rocks carved to accommodate the springs are so finely made that the water can be stopped or made to change course by the touch of a finger. The huge rocks used to construct the site were taken from the side of the mountain across the valley. Three valleys meet in this spot and it has all been used to their advantage. On the mountain across the other valley there are buildings for storage of food. That side of the mountain gets a lot of shade and howling winds create a natural refrigeration. Also on that mountain there is a section of rock that looks like the profile of a face and when the sun shines through this spot on the 21st June (solstice) it causes a ray of sunlight onto the far mountain and the Inkans used this as a calender.

After a long drive along the Sacred Valley, we arrived at our accommodation. It is a very beautiful Spanish hotel with an Inkan influence, set in beautiful gardens.
We went to dinner in the town of Pisac.
The next morning after a relaxing morning at the hotel we bused it to Tambomachay and from there we did a 3 hour steep uphill and downhill climb. Fabulous scenery along the Inkan trail and through the Inkan ruins - lovely weather.

We paid a local Peruvian flute player to follow us and continue to play his flute all the way down the mountain so that we had authentic atmosphere all the way. At the end we all tipped him. He made a fortune, even if we did feel guilty for taking him so far out of his way. We walked back into Pisac for lunch and spent sometime at the huge craft market in the square.