Today, Dad and I took a bus tour through The Sacred Valley of the Inka that led us to a souvenir market in Pisac and the Inkan city Ollantaytambo and Chincheros. The backdrop of the Andes Mountains was gorgeous and we were awed by the Inkan architecture.
Pisac pretty much only exists today for its souvenir market, which is enormous and a bit overwhelming, but never the less, very colorful. While I didn't buy anything, I really enjoyed wandering around and looking at what was for sale. It was mostly pretty generic knitted goods and ceramics that can be found in any souvenir shop in Peru, but there were some neat things, such as bowls of powdered pigments that become paint when you dip a wet brush into them. After Pisac, we had a buffet lunch and then were off to Ollantaytambo, which was awesome. It's terraces served as gardens for medicinal plants and vegetables as well as protection for the city. This was the first set of Inkan ruins I have seen in Peru, and the precision of the cut rocks is so impressive, especially when you think about how they lugged those enormous things uphill from quarries miles away. We could see watch towers, houses perched on the mountain side, and storage facilities for potatoes and corn. Also, using some imagination, you could see two faces in the side of the mountain. From Ollantaytambo, we went to Chincheros. Before seeing the ruins, we saw a demonstration of how yarn is washed and made using only natural products, which was pretty cool. The Chinchero ruins were interesting both as an Inkan city, but also as a colonial center as well, as many of the bricks were removed from the Inkan structures and used to make the foundations for Spanish-style homes and the Catholic church. We were all pretty heartbroken to learn that an international airport is to be constructed starting next year, which will greatly impact the town of Chincheros.
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