6th January 2025

By 5:30am we were eating breakfast, fuelling ourselves for the day ahead. Today we would be heading to five locations in the Sacred Valley on a day tour. The Sacred Valley refers to several locations around the Andean highlands considered important during the Incan Empire.

Our first stop though was not related to the Sacred Valley. We stopped at Killa Suma, in Chinchero. Here we watched a demonstration of women wearing traditional Peruvian attire in black, red and blue, showing us how they cleaned, naturally dyed and spun alpaca wool, which they could then use for clothes and textile making. It was an engaging and very educational interaction during which we were served aromatic tea. Behind the women stood a large clay counter, on top of which a fire pit where large worn metal kettles sat simmering. Fitted into the counter below were large cages filled with guinea pigs. There were two ways to perceive this set up and I opted for the one where the fire was to simply keep beloved pets warm…

We drove on to the town centre of Chinchero where we entered the archeological site, a large area with stone walls marking original Inca structures and farming terraces. It has been speculated that when the Spanish arrived in the Andes, the Inca’s burnt the city down leaving behind only stone so that the invaders would find no supplies or comfort.

The next stop on our list was Moray (pictured above), a spectacular vision of three circular structures consisting of stone terraces which descended down into the ground. This was an Inca agricultural laboratory, used to see if they could grow crops in places they would not normally flourish by manipulating the environment they grow in.

We then stopped at a shop where we got to sample dark chocolate with salt from the Maras Salt Mines, the next stop on our tour. We ended up buying a bar alongside plantain crisps and cancha, also known as Peruvian Corn Nuts, toasted giant corn seasoned heavily in salt. All snacks were nothing but wrappers and rubbish by the end of the tour!

The Maras Salt Mines sat in the basin of a red clay mountain, this site predating the Inca’s. About 4,000 irregular squares made with red clay and full of varying shades of muddy water, staggered down the valley, appearing like a watercolour box set exclusively focused on red and browns. Some areas were heavily stained white, presumably due to the build up of salt over time. As it was the rainy season, this was rain water filling the basins opposed to the salt water. During the dry season, farmers would fill their plots with water from a naturally occurring salt spring using underground channels, then sit back allowing the sun to dry out their plot leaving behind the salt.

We continued onwards to Ollantaytambo, our train destination from Aguas Calientes. Traffic was heaving due to Bajada de Reyes, a three day festival celebrating the end to Christmas celebrations. On arrival, we saw traditional Peruvian female dancers in full attire, a crowd and live music encouraging them to pirouette, their skirts fanning out. 

We tore ourselves away from the festivities to the archaeological site of Ollantaytambo, a large stone structure carved into a steep mountain which was the home to an Incan Emperor and considered a spiritually meaningful place in relation to Machu Picchu, normally acting as a check point on the ancient Inca Trail. The site was heaving and people had appeared to lose their minds pushing past each other, knocking over children and just being inconsiderate. We couldn’t get much enjoyment here, the lack of consideration for others just left a sour taste. We returned to the square early where we watched the unfolding celebrations in town.

Our final stop was Pisac. We managed to get in just before they shut the gates and worked our way up the hill. At the top, the tour guide explained that there had been over 10,000 Inca tombs on the mountain side and pointed to the vertical mountain edge with many cavities in neat lines covering the vertical mountain side. Our guide (and the internet) unable to explain how the Inca’s buried their dead in the mountain, but we were informed that the Spanish looted about 5,000 of these tombs, taking the gold that was buried with their owners. The rest of the land was used for agricultural purposes, and again, included stacked grass and stone terraces covering the mountainside. The place was enormous, with many paths leading off in different directions, sadly we didn’t have time to explore it to its full extent. 

Back in Cusco we parted with the group and headed straight to Jack’s, which was quickly becoming our favourite eatery. We enjoyed an excellent meal and celebrated our last night in Cusco with pisco sours.