Cuzco, Peru: 14th Feb 10

Today we had a tour of the Sacred Valley.

First stop was the typical Andean village of Cinchero, which has some Incan ruins, a beautiful colonial church, and a very colourful market where we bought scarves made from Alpaca wool - we have some cold places coming up in the next few weeks!



Next up was the village of Taramba and the Inca terraces of ‘Moray’. The terraces were used by the Incans to cultivate and experiment with crops at different altitudes.


The final stop was the huge Inca city of Ollantaytambo, which is set amongst the hills where 3 valleys meet and is very beautiful. The walk up the hills was quite tiring as we’re over 3,500 metres up here and the air is thin, but we managed just fine!




Unfortunately we couldn’t visit Cuzco’s most famous sight ‘Machu Pichu’ as there were very heavy rains a few weeks ago and the train tracks and roads were washed away by landslides – the walking trail had also been partially destroyed. We count ourselves lucky though as we may have been stranded if there at the time – 3,000 tourists were stuck for up to 10 days and had to be airlifted out! Although we’re disappointed not to see it, it’s always good to have a reason to come back.


Aside from seeing the amazing Sacred Valley and ruins, today was special for another reason – it’s Carnival time in Peru! This isn’t the type of carnival you get in Rio or London – it’s actually a HUGE water fight that takes place all over the country!

Everywhere we drove the car was pelted with water balloons or buckets of water. When we got back to Cuzco we sat in a café with a great view over the main square and watched for hours as hundreds of people of all ages soaked each other with water and foam – it was great fun!