El Vallejo Sagrado (Nick)

After an early morning flight from Lima we found ourselves in Cusco, 3300m above sea level. The altitude can do strange things to you - both of us felt a little woozy on arrival, and the air in my packet of chips expanded so much that it eventually burst in my bag.

We caught a cab in to the Plaza de Armas, where we eventually secured the services of Juan, who agreed to drive us along part of the Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo, where we were due to catch the train later that evening.

The Sacred Valley of the Incas follows the course of the Urubamba River for 150km, and is the site of some amazing Inca ruins. After a winding journey down the side of the valley we arrived at Pisac, where we grabbed lunch and wandered around the market for a while, and then Juan drove us up to the ruins themselves (see top photo). They're even higher than Cusco, and the going was pretty strenuous any time we had to climb stairs. The Incas, in building their towns and temples on the steep valleys of the Andes, incorporated a lot of stairs.

The ruins themselves are spectacular, and include terraces, fortifications, and temples. We scrambled around them, and admired the views of the valley and the town of Pisac for a couple of hours while Juan waited patiently in the car. When we eventually got back he drove us on through the valley, passing towns like Calca, Yucay, and Urubamba, all of which started out as Inca settlements. At Molly's request he turned off the main road a couple of times and drove us through the ancient village streets, while we asked him in pidgin Spanish about what we were seeing.

Eventually we arrived in the beautiful town of Ollantaytambo. We were due to stay there a day later after visiting Machu Picchu, and the train between Ollantaytambo and the staging post for Machu Picchu only allowed hand luggage, so with Juan's help we located the hostel we would be staying at and dropped off most of our stuff. The train left an hour or so later, so we grabbed a drink at the tavern next to the station before lining up to get on the train. While we were standing there I noticed a woman standing very closely behind Molly, whose fingers were moving very rapidly around the zip pocket on the outside of Molly's bag. A loud "Hey!" from me and a quick pirouette from Molly followed, whereupon the woman managed to both slink off and look innocent- skillfully done.

After a couple of hours on the train we arrived at Aguas Calientes (now renamed Machu Picchu Pueblo), still in the Sacred Valley and at the foot of the hill climb to Machu Picchu. By then it was about 8pm, and dark, so we followed the crowd up the hill from the station to the town. We had been warned that it wasn't a very nice place, and it certainly wasn't pretty, but it was fine for what it was- a town providing services to tourists visiting the ruins. We checked into our hostel, called Supertramp,  grabbed a quick meal and fell into bed.