The Sacred Valley of the Incas

Vilcanota Valley, with the Vilcanota/Urubamba River, part of the Sacred Valley

Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Incas. It never gets old...even on the third visit. The highlights of Cusco and environs merit a separate post; this focuses on a two-day tour of the Sacred Valley, which runs north from Cusco to Urubamba.

Day 1: 

Rain kept us from being as energetic as we would have liked. Read: climb 200 steps at Ollyantaytambo (Oy-YAN-tah-ee-TAHM-bow), one of two major Inca sites in the valley. It is built up the sides of two mountains, with the ceremonial centre on one side and granaries and a large man's face carved into the other.

Ollantaytambo--the 200 steps.

Ollantaytambo: granaries and man's head

Looking from the main plaza to the granaries

The town, of the same name, is the best-preserved Inca municipality in an empire that stretched from northern Ecuador to central Chile.


 

Ollantaytambo-town with Inca walls and aqueduct.

The other site, Pisaq, is closer to Cusco  It too requires climbing, a fairly gentle but steady incline to the main area, then more, steeper climbing to some of the buildings and the Intihuatana.   

Pisaq is notable for the wall and doorway over the Inca Trail, which affords one of many stunning views of the Sacred Valley far below. 

Inca trail and entrance to Pisaq

Simon, Quechua flutist.

The town of Pisaq reminded me a bit of a hilly Antigua, with its well-preserved colonial buildings and houses.  
 

Guide Javier Quispe Cruz with David Abrahams

A large silver factory and jewelry store kept us looking for a half hour but I resisted the temptation to purchase a magnificent spondylus shell necklace.  A couple blocks away we came on the oldest colonial oven in Pisaq, where we enjoyed
 

The oldest oven in Pisaq

Spondylus shell necklace

Our last stop was at the Sanctuario Cochahuasi, a wildlife rescue centre. After getting up close and personal with a 60-year old condor we stopped to watch Antonia, a Quechua weaver, on a backstrap loom that brought up other memories of Guatemala.

A condor and me

Angela, weaver

Day 2:

Better weather greeted us and by afternoon there was some blue sky and sun. Our destinations included Moray, an Inca agricultural experiment station, the Marasal salt ponds, created in Inca times and fed by one small creek of VERY salty water, and the weaving town of Chinchero, which brought back memories of Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca. Along the way we stopped at a mirador where we looked down to the Urubamba River Valley while to our right was a hillside covered with terraces of Inca granaries or storage buildings where dried potatoes and other food, as well clothing and wool were kept for times of famine. People in the Inca empire never went hungry.
 

Granaries in the Sacred Valley

Moray is amazing site. First discovered in an archaeologist’s over flight of the region, a dozen-plus terraces were carved into a natural bowl. The difference between the top of the bowl and the bottom is 5 degrees, which created a series of microclimates on each terrace. Here the Incas improved the quality of several foods and spread this knowledge throughout the empire. Two smaller terraced bowls remain to be restored. The Peruvian National Institute for Agrarian Research (INIA) plans to renew Moray as an agricultural test station in the next few years.

 

Moray

Marasal Salt Ponds. The Incas suffered from widespread goiter because of the lack of salt in their diet. On discovering a small salty creek feeding into a steep valley, they began constructing ponds to capture the water, evaporate it, then harvest the salt. Over 2,000 salt ponds were created and are still in use. 

 

Marasal Salt Ponds

Source of the salt ponds.

Men harvesting one of the salt ponds.

Families in the nearby town of Maras own 2-3 ponds, which cannot be sold but are passed down in the family. In the rainy season (the North American winter months), we saw workers on only one salt pond; in the dry season from April to October, the ponds are flooded three times per month, allowed to dry, the harvested once a month. Each pond produces 50 kilos of salt per month.

Our next stop was Chinchero, located 50 minutes north of Cusco where the men farm and the women weave. The men help by going into the countryside and collecting the plants used to make the natural dyes that provide vibrant colours to both alpaca and sheep wool.
 

Dyeing alpaca

Olga

Our guide, Javier Quispe Cruz, led us to the Mink’a Chinchero co-op, a group of 15 women who weave, demonstrate their art to visitors, and sell their products. We were treated to a well prepared demonstration narrated by Olga Huaman, whose English and sense of humour were sharp. 

After demonstrating how they wash the wool with a natural detergent made from a tree root, make the dyes, dye the wool and weave on a back-strap loom, Olga held up a bone used in weaving and asked us what animal it came from. Cow, sheep, alpaca, llama? No, she said with a broad smile. “It’s the bone from a tourist who didn’t buy anything!” We couldn’t stop laughing. It was, in fact, alpaca. Olga also demonstrated how they use the red colours from the cochineal insect (a small white insect that lives on Nopales cacti) for lipstick. After applying a dot to her cheek and some to her lips, she looked at David and said, “This is good for a thousand kisses.” More laughter. We left with an alpaca scarf for David and small purse in which my notebook fits and hangs around my neck.
 

M'inke coop weavers and their products.

Back in Cusco we invited Javier and our driver to lunch, saying only that we wanted typical Peruvian food.

They took us to La Casona del Inca, which has two locations, one near Sacsayhuaman just outside Cusco, where ceviche made with mountain trout and accompanied by sweet potatoes and corn was memorable.

Across the Andes: From Santiago to Mendoza

Manzano Historico, Mendoza, where San Martín and his troops rested.

It took General José de San Martín 21 days in January 1817 with 5,400 men, 1,500 horses, and 9,300 mules.  They were the Army of the Andes and they were on their way to liberate Chile, having already driven the Spanish from Argentina.  Once across the mountains, San Martín joined with Chilean General Bernardo O’Higgins to begin the second war for independence in the Southern Cone.  On 12 February 1817, at the  Battle of Chacabuco—60 km. north of Santiago—the Royalists lost 500 and another 600 were taken prisoner while the Army of the Andes suffered 12 killed and 100 wounded. 

Chacabuco Park, an hour north of Santiago.

San Martín wrote: “The Army of the Andes has attained glory and can report: In twenty-four days we have completed the campaign, passed through the highest mountain range on the globe, defeated the tyrants and given freedom to Chile".   

(San Martín didn’t know about the Himalayas!)

The war would drag on for another year but at Chacabuco independence was assured.  The monument and the park in which it sits are located at Chacabuco.

We had a much easier time of it. 

After disembarking in Valparaiso we made our way to Santiago where we were met by Rodrigo del Valle, a tour guide arranged through a Chilean agency.  Rodrigo’s English is excellent; he lived in Los Angeles for 25 years.  We had asked to see the Maipo Valley, an area west of Santiago that we hadn’t visited on previous trips.  If you buy Chilean wine you have probably seen “Maipo Valley” on some bottles’ labels.  

Maipo Valley

La Vasquita Eché

First stop, however, was lunch, at La Vasquita Eché, where the grilled lamb shank and an obscenely large chunk of tenderloin are standard fare.  Argentines and Chileans are not acquainted with small cuts of meat.  We were also treated to a guitarist/singer and a pair of folk dancers.

Century-old corking machine.

Then it was on to a small, family-owned winery, the Cavas del Maipo, where the owner, Jaime, gave us a detailed tour, explaining along the way why he does things the way he does.  The result, as we found during the tasting at the end, is a superb chardonnay with no oak taste and the only cabernet sauvignon in memory that I would choose to drink: smooth with no harshness.   One of Jaime’s treasures is a 100-year old corking machine that he still uses to cork his sparkling wine.

Back at our hotel, we checked in, found a light supper, and were in bed by 10.  We had to be up at 06:00 for a 07:30 bus to Mendoza, Argentina. A few years earlier we had rented a car and driven up to the border and three decades ago I had driven from Mendoza almost to the Chilean border.  The bus was first-class with wide, comfortable seats, and our agent had gotten us the best seats:  front, left on a double-decker.  Lots of photo ops!

The trip normally takes five hours but Chile was doing serious road construction on the stretch near the border—above 3,000 m. (10,000 ft.) clearly trying to finish before winter sets in and skiers want to drive up to Portillo, a large ski resort just short of the border.   

 

Portillo

The delays for one-way traffic cost us an hour and the stop at customs on the Argentine side another hour. 

In 2008, on our first trip to Chile, David and I had driven up to Portillo just to see the Andes.  It never gets less spectacular but the best part is the 29 hair-pin curves (they are numbered) up the last mountain before the border.  At this point we were at about 4,000 meters or 14,000 feet.  On almost every straight stretch between curves, one can look down as see not only the valley but all the curves below.  We had a VERY good driver!

Some of the 29 curves.

The border crossing is efficient.  Everyone drives into a huge building with several lanes

Customs and Immigration, Argentine side.

for cars and two for buses.  Bus passengers must get off and present their passports or—in the case of Chilean/Argentine citizens their national ID card.  Sitting side by each in a glass-enclosed stall, a Chilean agent stamps the passport out of Chile and the Argentine agent stamps it in.  A random check of suitcases (ours escaped), then back on the bus for a non-stop to Mendoza. 

The Argentine side of the Andes is quite different from the Chilean; one is descending to 1,000 m (3,500 ft.) at Mendoza and the road, for the most part, snakes through wide valleys.  We got a partial view of Mt. Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Western Hemisphere, but its peak was, as usual, shrouded in clouds.  

 

Oasis in the Argentine Andes.

The Mendoza River accompanied us most of the way and it was great fun to see rafters at different points.

Rafting on the Mendoza River

A hundred km. outside Mendoza we passed a huge gas refinery, then the vineyards began.  

YPF Gas Refinery.

Ruca Malen Winery

Arriving at our hotel In Mendoza City we were greeted by a friendly and helpful staff who made our week-long stay a pleasure. 

More on our time in Mendoza in another blog post.