Visiting the Sacred Valley

Thursday August 20:

Today we went on a bus trip out to the Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley, through which the Urubamba River runs contains many of the major temples, towns and fortresses of the Incas.

Along the way we stopped at an exhibition that was set up by the local farms to showcase the animals from which the products are produced - llamas, alpacas, vicunas and chinchillas. The kids got to feed the animals and feel their fur.

We stopped at the market in Pisac for some lunch. We were led to a great little bakery that served fresh buns filled with cheese, onions and ham - all for about $1.50. It was very hot today with temperatures up over 80F.

We finally stopped at Ollantaytambo where the remains of a great fortress and temple have been opened to the public. The area is huge and the ruins go up a very steep mountain for at least 500 feet. The kids were in awe of the large stones, some more than 80 tons that had been quarried 6 kilometres away and moved up to the top of the fortress for the temple.

We came back through the Peruvian alto plano with some great views of farms, the Andes and great scenery.