Our Peru Adventure - Ollantaytambo

Hello everyone.. how have you been? The sun is out.. things are in bloom.. D and I are sneezing.. spring is here. 

Last week we sadly returned home after have the most incredible Peruvian adventure.. which I am so excited to share here with you. 

We caught a red eye (my preferred time of travel) out of JFK on Saturday night.. Sunday morning we landed Lima but we were nowhere close to our destination. We had a sit down breakfast at the airport while we waited for our next flight and then we were off to Cusco. Two hours later we got into a taxi and made our way over to Ollantaytambo just another short two our drive away.. don't ask me much about it since we slept through most of it.

That was a lot.. I know. Not let me explain the why. Altitude sickness is a real problem when visiting Peru. We heard stories from many fellow travellers who did not take the time to acclimate properly and found part of their travelling party sick as dogs and missing out on the whole trip as they were laid up in their hotels.

While Lima is at sea level we were not in Peru for Lima. We were there for Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is 7972 feet above sea level while Cusco is 11152 feet above sea level. So staying in Cusco was not wise. Now the town located at the foot of Machu Picchu is Aguas Calientes and is 6693 feet above sea level but it lacks personality so we chose to stay in Ollantaytambo with an elevation of 9160 feet above sea level.

Ollantaytambo is a village in the Sacred Valley of south Peru, set on the Urubamba River amid snow-capped mountains. It's known for the Ollantaytambo ruins, a massive Inca fortress with large stone terraces on a hillside. During the Inca Empire, Ollantaytambo was the royal estate of Emperor Pachacuti, who conquered the region, and built the town and a ceremonial center. At the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru, it served as a stronghold for Manco Inca Yupanqui, leader of the Inca resistance.

Ollantaytambo is also the gateway to Machu Picchu. All trains that go to MP pass through Ollantaytambo. It marks the end of the Sacred Valley and the starting point for the famous Inca Trail.

We were so happy we used this location as our base because it was pure magic..

We stayed at Tierra Inka which was a short walk away from the main square. 

above are a new to me fruit called a tamarillo or a poor man's tomato. lol. 

I love staying at properties that are growing fruits and vegetables. We sampled the avocado's for breakfast every morning. 

We checked in, refreshed and headed out to get our bearings. 

Dogs are all over Peru. They are not necessarily stray, they know where home is they may be in the vicinity of their owners but they are not leashed, most of them are perfectly harmless wandering about, laying in the street sunning. 

 

We grabbed a snack.. we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast in Lima. This was our favorite coffee shop during our whole trip. They had the most delicious cookies, the alfajores was my favorite. It was huge and I could have eaten the whole thing.. I didn't but I could have. 

The market so beautiful and authentic. Very few people spoke English.. but everyone was so kind and willing to try. D had the perfect opportunity to practice his skills. His teacher has recommended his for an accelerator Spanish class next year. 

We went back to the hotel to rest for a bit before dinner. 

We had an early dinner at El Albergue which was located next to the train tracks. 

I know everything looks very pretty but the desserts were the best part of the meal. ps. those skewers were alpaca meat. 

We called it a night and hit the sack... exhausted. 

Day two, we had a lovely complimentary breakfast freshly prepared by the hotel and then off we went. It was lightly drizzling. 

Our first stop was the Ruins of Ollantaytambo. The ruins were built around 1450 by Inca Pachacuti and include 17 terraces, a fortress, a Sun Temple, and a sophisticated water system. The Ollantaytambo ruins were declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1983. Even now water flows all through the entire town, you hear it everywhere.. it is so soothing. 

To enter the ruins there is a ticket. The ticket can be used at various other sites throughout the Sacred Valley. It is $20 for a 2 days ticket and $36 for 10 days. 

The sky had started to clear up.. when I was looking at the forecast at home all I could see was rain but thankfully the sun was about to come out. 

Our next stop was the Pinkuylluna Mountain Granaries which you can see circled in the picture above. The granaries are free and tricky to find. We almost walked right by the entrance. The granaries are believed to be a 15th century construct to store grains. How did they get the grains all the way up there.. good questions. The Inca did not believe in writing things down. So they do not have a recorded history. Most of the information is based on educated guesswork by historians. 

This was a slightly more challenging hike.. a lot of uneven stairs and narrow walking paths. But it was so freakin worth it. 

You can see the granaries behind us.

and then we started to make our way back down. 

Once in the main square we got lunch at Koricancha Cafe.

The yellow drink in the back is Inca Kola which had a cream soda esque taste. The above dish was a zucchini lasagna. It caught us a little by surprise but M said it was very good. Quinoa is very big in Peru. In fact it is an Andean grain cultivated in Peru and Bolivia highlands for the past 5000 years. Even the pizza we had on our last day in Ollantaytambo had quinoa in it. 

The perfect spot for some people watching and the owner offered us all llama keychains, the driver that picked us up from the Cusco airport also gave them to us as a welcome gift. 

 

On our way to the granaries H had spotted a bunny cafe which I promised we would return to.. gotta keep our promises right? So we made our way to JOY Artesania & Bunnies Café.

The lady had 40 bunnies in her possession. She has a gofundme and is trying to raise money to expand and create better homes for the bunnies who are mostly donated to her. H and I had a little cuddle session. 

It had been a long day and it was time for a caffeine break. We sat in the balcony of Coffee Time people watching. 

She is turning alpaca fur into thread. I will get more into this whole process in another post when we visit a weavers workshop. 

After coffee we returned to our hotel for a break and reemerged for dinner at Apu Veronica.

There were many things name apu and veronica in Peru. Turns out apu means lord or god as well as sacred spirits of mountains. Veronica is the name of a mountain in the Urubamba mountain range in the Sacred Valley. Veronica is a name the Spanish used, but the original name in Quechua is “Weqewillka”, which means “sacred tears”.

While the primary religion in Peru is Catholicism it is blended with traditional indigenous beliefs and practices, particularly in rural areas.

 Coming back to dinner.

Lomo Saltado - an Asian style beef and rice. Asian, particularly Chinese and Japanese, influence is deeply embedded in Peruvian culture, particularly in cuisine primarily due to the significant waves of Chinese and Japanese immigration in the 19th and 20th centuries

Aij Gallina - chicken in yellow chili curry. 

Vegetarian Stew

Hope you are enjoying our adventure. Day three will find us in Machu Picchu. Stay tuned. ps. the water in Peru is not drinkable so we carried our trusted Brita filter water bottles. 

                        

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