Sacred Valley Tour

The day before the start of ´our´ Inca Trail, we visited sites in and around the Sacred Valley of the Inca´s. A place rich in history, because of it´s fertile soil, which is still being well used by the local people, supplying the residents of Cusco with most of their fruit and veg. Something like 4000 different types of potatoes, and more corn than you could ever imagine.

Our tour took us past Sacsaywaman (pronounced sexy woman), Pisac and Ollantaytambo, where we spent the night. A really interesting tour, and a great way to start to get to grips with Inca history and culture. These guys were master architects, and before building anything they extensively researched everything to do with the potential site. Places of worship always higher up (closer to the heaven´s) and with more formal architecture, as opposed to the houses, lower down and with a rustic design. Food warehouses always well postioned in a windy point of a valley, usually up on a mountain side, optimising ventilation. I think the thing that really stood out for me was the way the Inca´s respected their environment. One example of this is their terraces, which were used both for crops, and to protect the mountain side. These were always concave or convex, matching the natural layout of the land.