Clutch control
So, finally, we arrive at the Inca Trail. A four day hike across the andes to the Inca city of Machu Picchu.
But before we set off on the trail itself, we have a day exploring the Sacred Valley of the Incas, and the various ruins and cities it contains. This begins straight out of the Inca capital of Cusco, with the fortress of Saqsaywuaman (pronounced "sexy woman" to everyone's childish delight), a vast set of terraces constructed of massive rocks carved so that they can fit together with no cement or bonding materials. This style of building transpires to be something that we will see a lot of during the coming days, but not to this scale. The rocks here include those of collosal sizes, and typically, there are no quaries nearby.

Our second stop should be the Inca burial site just north of Pisac. However as we set off up the hairpin roads to reach it, the unthinkable happens. Jock, our trusty big yellow truck/bus/whatever breaks down. His clutch failing. Abandoned at the side of the road, we eventually get another bus back down to Pisac to sample the delights of its market, while the driver and tour guide do their damnedest to fix the truck.
Pisac market is very nice if you like that kind of thing. It looks great, brightly coloured textiles, ornaments and jewlery on every stall. In fact every stall has pretty much the same things. Inca neck chains, fake alpacca rugs and sweaters, hideous "ceremonial" knives, bottle openers, walking sticks, chess sets (Incas versus Conquestadors - novel when you first see them, progessively dull with each subsequent market you visit). I didn't buy anything at all, other than a few "pasties" from the bakery (very nice too).

With Jock still incapacitated by the time we had finished wondering around the market, we took another bus to Ollantaytambo, an Inca village with a pretty spectacular ruin of its own - a temple atop a vast series of terraces, and our starting point for the Inca trail the following day.
- posted by Vince @ 10:04 AM