PUERTO MALDONADO - CUSCO

Our fifth day is here already and it was time to take a 2hour boat trip back up the river to Puerto Maldonado. After collecting our suitcases from storage we took a quick walk through the town market then headed for the airport for our flight to Cusco. Half of the group feeling a bit seedy today.
On arrival into Cusco our tour guide was waiting at the airport to transfer us to the Novotel located in the historic centre close to Cusco’s main tourist attractions. By now we’re at 3,800 metres so we had the afternoon to settle in, acclimatise and recover for others. Those who felt up to it went out for a delicious meal at the MAP cafe......superb food.
The following day we bused to the Sacred Valley stopping on the way at Chinchero where we visited the Interpretation Centre of Andean Textiles. The local ladies demonstrated with Alpaca fleece their weaving spinning and dying using natural materials....the colours were amazing. They can still speak the indigenous language Quenchuan who lived mainly in the Andes. We then headed on to the Sacred Valley of the Incas a long narrow valley with a river flowing through it the Andes Mountains rising steeply on either side. The Sacred Valley has its own microclimate and is a very fertile farming area prosperous in Inca times and even today they can grow anything, corn and potatoes being their main crops. We saw the occasional tractor but mainly using bullocks , sowing and fertilising by hand.

After lunch in Ollantaytambo we climbed to the top of the large archaeological ruins. Everywhere you look around these rugged mountains is terracing and rock walls high on the mountains. On the terraces they grew their crops and still today they climb these mountains to farm the terraces. The Incas were unbelievable the way they moved these enormous rocks to build this multifunctional village used for administrative military social and a religious centre. Also the place where they beat the Spanish who were invading them.
After our big climb we drove back to the Pisac market for a quick look around then checked in at our hotel in the Sacred Valley a converted 300yr old colonial- style monastery. A beautiful peaceful place to be staying overnight.

 Spinning weaving dying

Demonstrating how they wrap their babies before they go into the sling on their backs

You can see on the hills the graineries blending into the mountain where they stored food and grains.