After a good breakfast buffet this morning at our hotel in Cusco, we set off for a tour of the Sacred Valley of The Incas.
As we drove through the rural landscape and many small shanty towns, we noticed a significant police presence and were told by our guide that the president of Peru was due today. There must be an election, and he needs the people in the shanty towns to vote for him.
For lunch, we stopped off at a restaurant on the grounds of an imposing hotel, where they had an equally impressive buffet. I noticed a few pilots leaving this complex and returning to Cusco for their flights. They must be outstanding pilots to afford to stay in such luxury. When we had finished lunch, we continued through the Sacred Valley, past a few small villages and crossed a large river with buildings perched precariously along the river bank.
We drove through the mountains and arrived at the town of Ollantaytambo. We stopped there to visit a market where we were shown the different meat, fish and vegetables on the stalls at the local market. After visiting the market, we walked through the town to the archaeological site at Ollantaytambo. This was a very impressive-looking walled Inca site. I was looking up at the steep terracing going up the mountain and wondering how people managed to get to the top. I would find out a short time later as we went in and took a walking tour to the top. For little people, the Incas seemed to have built very steep steps, and it was very tiring to walk up them. I blamed my shortness of breath on the altitude and not my state of fitness.
From the top, we could see the homes below us. Across the valley, on another mountain, we could see storehouses built onto the rock face, and I wondered how the workers walked up and down to these storehouses carrying food. Even more unbelievable was how they carried the stone to build the stores up the mountainside and built them in such precarious positions.
At the top of the steps, there was a long walk down that could be taken. It was not so steep but was not so well looked after and had long, unguarded drops down the mountain. Walking down would have put the drop on my blind side, and being wary of my inability to see where the path finished and the long drop started, I decided to go back down the steep steps again. It was a walk that I did not enjoy. Because I can't gauge depth, I found it difficult; for some steps, I lowered myself down on my backside, but for the majority of it, I did manage to walk down.
Our long drive back to Cuzco was longer than expected as the coach we were on stuttered to a halt on four occasions. It seemed the coach was suffering from altitude sickness, and we were all glad when we finally got back to the hotel. I feel that today's driver deserved a special mention for coping with the difficult conditions and keeping us all safe.
Once again, I had a sandwich and a beer in the hotel in the evening. The hotel bar had a piano and a pianist, providing guests with entertainment. If you have ever seen the great Les Dawson play the piano, you will understand what the entertainment was like. Unfortunately, the pianist probably hadn't heard of Les Dawson and was not playing that way because of the laughter it provided; it was all-natural.