Peru: The Ruins at Pisac

Pisac was the first city we stayed in during our visit to Peru. We took a cab from the airport in Cusco, which took us up winding roads past sparse forests and grasslands and over a pass into the Urumbamba Valley. It had been a long time since i'd been in a completely foreign place, and the high altitude, late day sunlight along with the thin crisp mountain air and foreign architecture went a long way towards making me feel like i was in an exotic place. It was a nice ride through alternating stretches of shade and sun.

After about an hour cab ride, maybe less, we had our first view of the "Sacred Valley" where we would be spending the bulk of our time.

On the drive down the mountain we could see the first terraced fields we were supposed to visit in the morning, high over the town of Pisac.

We stayed just out of town at a pretty B&B called Casa del Conde. The next morning we hit our first ruins, called simply the Pisac Ruins i think. We climbed out of our gasoline soaked cab and were immediately assaulted by people who wanted to be our guide or sell us trinkets. We hired this guy who turned out to be pretty cool, although he rushed us through some of the more interesting structures so he could get back to the road and get some more tourists.

Once in Pisac we switched to smaller cab which was really just a vinyl covered bench on the back of a motorcycle. Our driver took us a few minutes out of town to our lodging.

Pisac near sunset, from our B&B Casa del Conde

The next morning we got up early. It was a short walk, no more than 10 minutes from our bedding back into town. I liked the walk. It served as a kind of decompression after being in the narrow streets for so long.

We also bought some coca leaves from an old guy with a bunch of trashbags full of them. Using the coca leaf you just wad some up and chew them a few times, then you kind of suck on them for 10 minutes or however long you want. It definitely seemed to help with the altitude and gave us mild coffee like energy boost. The other thing they did was make half my tongue numb. The high angle, low filtered sunlight gave me incredible sunburn on my arms and neck, despite sunscreen. It was chilli at night but in bed i had to have my arms outside the covers.

It was obvious right away that the Incas were adept at choosing great places to build cities. The valley below reminded me of what i would expect the Italian countryside to look like.

 The ruins at Pisac are known partially for it's curved terraces. Most terraces are straight.

A cool gateway. You can take a road up to the top of the ruins and take a tour then another ride down or you can walk all the way down the front side of the mountain right into the center of town. We chose the latter.

 This area would have originally been covered and was used for food storage.

Coca leaves.They taste really awful at first but soon have a tea like flavor. I became addicted to them immediately.

 These were grain storage buildings.

 Our guide told us that his grandfather, and many Peruvians of the day would come and remove the roofing off the ruins for their own uses.

Upper class Incan stonework.

 The entrance to a sacred temple.

A nice wall to an upper class or royal home.

A second ruins complex. The first area we visited was for farmers and workers and was where our guide spend most of our time. This second royal/religious site was much more interesting but our guide rushed us through it so he could get back to the road.

 A guardhouse. These were scattered periodically along the trail and placed to be within hearing distance of the others.

 A water fountain of ceremonial importance.

Another guardhouse. We were visiting in the middle of winter, at the end of the harvest season, so the hills were largely brown instead of green. Winter in Peru at 10,000 feet feels fantastic, downright hot sometimes, for me.

It's Ben

 A very long staircase. I was glad we were going down.

 All the terraces we were seeing were a lot taller than we thought.

 Looking down at corn fields. Our B&B was tucked up against the trees above the curvy fields on the far right.

When we were back in town we had some guinea pig and explored the market. All the tourist books say Pisac is known for it's market, which takes up the whole town square. It seemed like a pretty normal market to me, and the town itself was far more interesting for exploring.

That evening we wandered through the entire town looking for a bar. It appeared that a town full of poor farmers couldn't afford to go blow all their money in a bar, go figure. In fact, we thought it might be a "beer only" town but eventually we did find some liquor. Right after that, as we were walking home and just about to leave the town boundary we found the perfect bar, exactly what we had been looking for for so long. It was aggravating because we had already broken down and bought  a bottle of rum out of the only place we had seen that offered anything other than the national beer.

Typical street activity in Pisac

Pisac was set up as a grid, mostly, from the river up to the low hillside. They drained the stone streets with a groove cut down the middle, sometimes with decorative tiles along it's length. Kids were always finding ways to play with the groove. I even saw a dog chasing water as it flowed down a dry groove. The first kid is pushing a toy car through the groove. The other kid is rolling a large marble.

I didn't expect the large hippie presence in Peru. They would sit around making obnoxious noise and offer to get you involved in multi-day "retreats" to experience the hallucinogenic drug known as Ayahuasca. I think they might be able to take you to some of those energy vortexes too.

Pisac seems to be best known for it's market in the center of town. We were there during an off day. What is amazing is that although the market seems to be a daily event, the merchants take everything down every night and put it back up every morning.

A woman carries her baby on her back through a quiet street.

There were a TON of dogs in Peru. Many of them were very cute and they looked much healthier than Mexican dogs. It was hard to tell sometimes if they were stray or people just let them wander all over town during the daytime. I'm having to seriously restrain myself from posting endless dog pictures.

I want to ride an Akira motorcycle down this street very fast.

Other wildlife included guinea pigs. These pigs are for eating. Which one would you like to put in your mouth?

The gates of guinea pig hell.

In the cities, especially the small towns, there weren't many cars. Instead you could ride in a variety of uniquely personalized modified motorcycles.

A nicer house. The layout of these towns was blocks with interior courtyards.

These are some pictures of the grounds of the B&B. It was a really pretty, relaxing place to stay. The rooms were cramped but the host was very nice. The only complaint we had was that the driver, who occasionally took us into town because that was his job, charged us for all our rides, out of the blue, after we had checked out and he took us back into town. We seriously doubted that he was supposed to be doing that and it ended an otherwise pleasant experience on a sour note.

The lodge from the front. The rooms were in a separate building up against the eucalyptus forest in the back.

The lodge had a lot of nice landscaping everywhere.

Farmers still use the terraces built by the Incans hundreds of years ago.

Across the valley from our room after a late day rain shower.

I can't remember the name of the dog but she was sweet. In this picture she had walked right into our room and hopped on the bed. She would absolutely not get off so we had to push her off. Even then, she was so uncooperative that she landed upside down on her head, all the while trying to look as abused as possible.

There were dogs that lived in these fields and they would bark like crazy when you walked by their territory. You couldn't see them either.

The stars were incredible in Peru. Outside of Cuzco there is very little development, and by this point we were over the continental divide, in the watershed of the Amazon. That means there was virtually no civilization to the east. That fact, and our high elevation made the Milky Way visible even in the center of the city. In this picture someone was burning stuff all night.