Spending a day in Pisac, Peru

Today we woke to snow in the mountains after a heavy rainstorm last night. ‘Our’ mountain above our hotel, Chi’qun, not only had fresh snow on the glacier but there was also snow halfway down the nearby peaks. We had an absolutely delicious breakfast at our hotel before walking into the town to catch a taxi for about half the price quoted at the concierge.

At first, we thought we’d head for the salt ponds at Maras and the large, circular Incan terraces at Moray. However, just as we started up the hill toward Cusco and the villages, a conversation with our taxi driver, Julio Cesár (yes, ‘Julius Caesar’ in Spanish) led us to the conclusion that a day in Pisac, at the southeastern end of the Sacred Valley, would be a better use of the day. One U-turn later and we were following the Urubamba River (also known as the Willkamayu, meaning “sacred” in the Incan language of Quechua) upstream for the better part of an hour.

Pisac

We passed through Pisac and immediately began the climb up the hillside to the Incan terraces and ruins high above the city. From the moment we left the car and started hiking higher we realized what a great idea it was to go there. The terracing was enormous, making a spectacular scene below us. Just to punctuate the day, a thunderstorm rolled through just as we arrived and while the rest of the tourists scurried past us, we continued uphill, knowing we had the rain gear necessary for a downpour.

With lightning flickering over the Sacred Valley, we walked the trails around the site, including passing through the very narrow and low rock tunnel, no small feat with the baby backpack. We marveled at the amount of work the Incas did to move enormous stones into place for the walls that supported the massive terraces and fortress at the peak of the hill. Not only did they build walls with massive stones (and no mortar), but they also had to carry enormous amounts of soil up from the valley floor to fill the terraces behind the walls. The scale is hard to describe to someone who hasn’t been there.

After our hike around the Incan ruins, we stopped at the market in Pisac where we could buy any manner of alpaca clothing, llama beer openers, Inca patterned ponchos and silver jewelry. For the most part, each stall sold the identical products as the next, but it was interesting to walk around and see sights like women weaving belts using their toes to anchor the yarn.

After a tasty lunch of chicken breast and french fries at the Blue Llama restaurant, we headed back to Urubamba to get rested for Machu Picchu tomorrow.