Sacred Valley of the Incas Reviews (Cusco, Peru)

A relaxing tour in the serene sacred valley

Nottingham, England

October 11, 2010

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Best of IgoUgo Today we are collected, by our guide, at 8.00 from the hotel and travel by road into the fertile and picturesque valley known as the Sacred Valley of the Incas. We’re away from Cuzco for a couple of nights and can only take small hand luggage with ...Read more Today we are collected, by our guide, at 8.00 from the hotel and travel by road into the fertile and picturesque valley known as the Sacred Valley of the Incas. We’re away from Cuzco for a couple of nights and can only take small hand luggage with us on the train to Macchu Picchu, so we have to pack very lightly and secure the rest of our luggage with the Hotel Ruinas in Cuzco. Now when I say lightly I mean a couple of rucksacks and as mine is almost full with the technical equipment (cameras, lens, net book and battery chargers) the rest has to be rammed into my wife’s. It’s a difficult decision because we’re getting mixed messages about the likely weather so in the end we have to pack layers including waterproof gear.

The valley between the towns of Pisac and Ollantaytambo was at the heart of the spiritual and commercial heart of the Inca Empire. It is part of a long river valley that starts upstream of Cuzo in the south and continues right on into the jungle, where the Urubamba River, known to the Incas as Vilcanota, merges with the other tributaries that merge in to the mighty Amazon.

The winding and fertile section known as the Sacred Valley of the Incas lies to the north east of Cuzco and in Inca times it was is guarded throughout by ancient Inca forts set high in the sides of the mountains. And of course the main towns after Cusco were the settlements of Pisac and Ollantaytambo, which are placed at both ends of the valley.

This is a beautiful and traditional area that is over popular with tourists as many people just pass through from as they head from Cuzco and hurry on to visit Machu Picchu. We are fortunately spending a bit of time to check out the valley as we make our journey. As we enter the valley we stop off to soak in the superb visa at one of the highest spots. From here we can see right across the valley and admire the cultivated patchwork of fields. Of course at this stop off there are several colourfully traditionally dressed locals ready to sell us their handmade craft work. Our guide tells us that this traditional dress has changed little from the pre-conquest days. Just as we’re about to get back into the mini bus we spot the frantic flapping of a hummingbird. Now the challenge is to catch it on film as well as to admire the gracefulness of the bird as it flies from flower to flower and then hovers as it extracts the nectar from the flowers. It’s real precision flying!

There’s a real serenity about our trip down to the Sacred Valley and we pass through small village with bustling local markets at the side of the road and local villages setting about their agricultural business. Some are busy making adobe bricks for their houses and we are extremely conscious that work is still progressing to repair the devastating damage that had been caused by the flooding earlier in the year. Indeed it’s not difficult to understand how houses are vulnerable to heavy rain as the sun dried clay bricks would quickly be destroyed by an extreme soaking.

Farmers are tending to their fields by hand or in some cases oxen and plough, and others stand in watch over small groups of cattle. The fields that appeared as patchwork tapestry from the top come to life with this local activity. Occasionally we spot, on the edge of a village, large Spanish haciendas and see a good splattering of temples and fortresses.

Down in the valley it’s easy to why the Incas settled in this are with the rich soils of the valley and the wide plains must have made settlements much easier to establish than the more sacred site of Ollantaytambo and Machu Picchu. Indeed if you have some time I’d recommend that you spend some of it in the Sacred Valley

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From journal The sacred Valley

On Overstatements and High Valleys

by SeenThat

Tel Aviv, Tel Aviv, Israel

February 8, 2011

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Best of IgoUgo As said in the "Planning Machu Picchu" entry of this journal, the best strategy for a visit to the area is to begin with the Sacred Valley; that’s true for altitude acclimatization considerations, but also for historical reasons. The trip would be ...Read more

From journal Vanishing into a Lost City

The Sacred Valley of the Incas

by fallschirmhosen

New York, New York

April 27, 2005

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Best of IgoUgo As the name suggests, the Sacred Valley of the Incas was definitely a key area of their civilization. It is generally regarded as the area along the Vilcanota River between Pisaq and Ollantaytambo, surrounded by the Andes Mountains. There are a ...Read more

From journal What's a Trip to Peru Without Machu Picchu?

Sacred Valley of the Inca's

by Kez

Broadbeach Waters, Australia

June 6, 2002

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Best of IgoUgo This is a long day but you cover many miles and it is all very interesting. The scenery throughout the Sacred Valley is breathtaking. The tour covers Pisac and its markets, Urubamba, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero. In the town of Pisac the markets ...Read more This is a long day but you cover many miles and it is all very interesting. The scenery throughout the Sacred Valley is breathtaking. The tour covers Pisac and its markets, Urubamba, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero.

In the town of Pisac the markets are a great place to sift through what's on offer: some unusual pieces and great souvenirs. Besides the normal woolly Alpaca things and typical touristy buys, you can find some ancient treasures. We bought an Incan statue made from white granite from near Machu Picchu. There was not only old stone relics but also loads of pottery pieces. Also, from the colonial era, there were old coins, silver pieces and even the old wooden stirrups, enclosed and richly carved. I could have spent the entire day there browsing.

Ollantaytambo was the next highlight and our favourite ruin aside from Machu Picchu. Our guide was the same one as we had for the city tour so was a wealth of information.

He explained how, when originally built, the large stones (and they were gigantic) of the ruin came from across the other side of the river. When they were all down next to it, the river was actually re-routed around them so that they could be moved up into position. He also pointed out the face carved into the mountain so as to "scare" off the native peoples from the Amazon, as they carried many diseases such as malaria that the Incas had no resistance to. We also learned how they had calculated exactly where the wind would hit the mountains around them, so that when it came down through the valley, they built their storage huts for grain and dry-goods in these spots so that their food supply stayed fresh and dry.

Then we moved on to the village of Chinchero, with their church and square with their kids all wanting to know your name and where you were from.

And then after an exciting day past some of the most beautiful mountain scenery back to Cusco.

If you have the Cusco Tourist ticket all entry fees are included with this. A very enjoyable and interesting tour.

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From journal Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Inca's

Valley of the Incas Bike tour

by mitchww@me.com

Chicago, Illinois

September 10, 2000

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Best of IgoUgo Our guide on our mountain bike trip was a wild man named Omar. We stood around his office for 30 minutes waiting to catch a bus to the point where we would start biking when all of a sudden he yelled 'Vamos!' hopped on his bike, and sped off ...Read more Our guide on our mountain bike trip was a wild man named Omar. We stood around his office for 30 minutes waiting to catch a bus to the point where we would start biking when all of a sudden he yelled 'Vamos!' hopped on his bike, and sped off into the chaotic streets of downtown Cusco. We scrambled onto our rented bikes, fumbled with the strange gears and took off after him. We hadn’t even had a chance to test the brakes before we were flying downhill into the busy Plaza De Armas.

We made it to the bus station intact, and loaded up for the 45 minute ride to the Alta Pampa, the high plains above the Urubamba river valley. We cycled for hours surrounded by the awesome peaks of the Andes and the humble villages hunkered in their shadows. Although the ride took us generally downhill, the frequent uphill portions were made brutally difficult by the high altitude.

Along the way we stopped at two unique archeological sites. The first was an area of ancient circular agricultural terraces where the Incas experimented with different crops.

After a brief stop at the agricultural terraces and a Coke in the town of Maras, we cycled across the vast plane descending towards the Urubamba river. By this point in the day our arms were as tired as our legs from the pounding vibrations.

The second archeological site of the day was the ancient salt pans. Spread along the far wall of the canyon were hundreds of small white pools set in uneven terraces reaching from halfway up the canyon wall to the valley below.

The path followed a narrow ledge cut out of the canyon wall and our exhausted arms battled the rocks and rain-cut channels to keep us from plunging over the edge. We walked our bikes over the roughest patches stopping occasionally to look at the lengthening sunlight reflect off the salt pools.

Omar guided us down to the Urubamba valley and we rode alongside the river on the paved asphalt. The last hour was spent in stop-and-go agony as I crawled along the small undulating hills in the valley cowering as packs of large busses raced along besides me carrying tourists back to Cusco after their half-day tours of the valley.

After breakfast, of fresh juices in the Urubamba market, the next day was spent riding along the Urubamba river through small villages, fields being prepared for the next planting, and alongside yards filled with drying corn from the last harvest. At one stop Omar bought a cupful of the local grain alcohol, Chicha, and offered us a taste. It tasted of fermentation and sugar and packed a mild punch. A very drunk local woman watched in amusement as we took our small, tentative sips.

We arrived, dirty and sore, in Cusco later that day and checked back into our hotel for one day of rest before setting out on the Inca Trail to the mystical Inca city of Machu Pichu.

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From journal Bike the Sacred Valley of the Incas

IgoUgo

Sacred Valley of the Incas

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