Pisac and Beyond (Or Rather, Closer)

After a day of "rest" in Cusco, we (I) were eager to get in some exploring. So I loaded Jeremy up with a cocktail of drugs and we set outto see some ruins in the Sacred Valley.

We really wanted to visit Pisac, a small town 30 km outside Cusco that has a great market and Incan ruins 4 km from the Plaza de Armas. (Like Spain, every town has a main square. It was always Plaza Mayor in Spain; here in Peru it is Plaza de Armas.)

To get there, we hopped in a local taxi, which we found in a rather shady part of Cusco which our concierge said, "isn't on the map, but can be found by listening for men yelling 'Pisac!' just over here..."

It wasn't too dodgy of a walk, and we did easily find a taxi, that we shared with two locals. And 10 soles later, we were flying at 100 km/hr around curves, over mountain passes, and by ruins that we decided to visit more closely on foot on the way home.

We reached (but nearly missed) Pisac 45 minutes later. Our taxi driver was so focused on pushing the speed limit to new heights that he forgot to stop and let us out. A quick, "adonde vas?!" reminded him though, and we were soon walking through the very tiny town of Pisac.

We immediately began our journey to the ruins, figuring that the 4 km walk would take about an hour, leaving us a bit of time to snap pics and then return to Pisac Plaza for shopping and lunch. Boy were we wrong! The 4 km walk could be more accurately described as a 4 km mountain scramble, up old, tiny, steep Inca steps. Thousands of steps.

We kept on climbing, wondering if we'd ever reach the top - can those Incas build! Two hours later, after many breaks to catch our breath (have you ever climbed 1000+ steps at 3000 meters above sea level?) we made it to the top.

It was so worth it! The Pisac ruins were our first glance at truly impressive Incan stone and terracing work. It is unbelievable to see what these people built with so little tools so long ago. And it is amazing that it is still standing.







After another hour of exploring, we made our way down the mountain. Quite the quad workout - our legs were shaking as we sat down to a delicious three course lunch at The Blue Llama, an adorable, eco-friendly, sustainable cafe. Invigorated after pumpkin soup, veggie lasgna, and a scoop of ice cream, we were ready for more ruins.

We hopped into another taxi - this one a major rip off at 20 soles -and headed back towards Cusco to view the ruins closer to town, including Tambomachay (ceremonial baths), Pukapukara (fort / hunting lodge), and finally Saqsaywaman (another fort and one of the last places captured by the Spanish in 1536.)

The walk back to Cusco from Tambomachay was about 8 km. Add that to the 8 km we climbed in Pisac, and we had a very long day, which we celebrated by packing up and preparing for our trek to Machu Picchu. If the lost city of the Incas is anything like Pisac, we are in for a treat!