The Sacred Valley

 I missed yesterday. It was a long day. We left Ollantaytambo and travelled to Cusco, the capital of the Inca empire and the place where we will join the CUSO Challenge group on Saturday.  We didn't just travel, however. We hired Raoul, our guide from the other day, to provide us with a tour of the Sacred Valley en route. The hour and 15 minute drive was transformed into an 8 1/2 hour private tour!

First stop was Moray, the Inca agricultural research station. Through engaging story-telling, Raoul explained the mysteries and the science associated with this beautiful place. The secrets of this spot took the Inca a while to figure out.  Without giving away any secrets, I can say the terraces were originally built to be an amphitheatre, however, the temperature at the bottom was found to be too hot for this purpose.

Recognizing the micro climates at the different levels, they started to experiment with growing different varieties of medicinal plants from the jungle. This led to planting different varieties of plants together, for example potatoes and corn, and producing hybrids. They are reported to have developed over 3,000 varieties of potatoes (yes, three thousand) and over 250 varieties of corn! 

Our next stop was at the salt pools at Maras. The pools are fed by a salt water spring. The water runs through a main channel and fills the various pools. A pool is left to sit for about a month until all the water evaporates leaving hard, white salt rock. This salt is then harvested and sent to a plant for processing and packaging. 

Peru sells its salt domestically and internationally.

Next, we visited the archeological site in the town of Chinchero. Here we saw our first clear example of the impact of the Spanish conquest. 

After several days in Ollantaytambo, which escaped much of the colonial influences, this site was hard to process. It was jarring to see a catholic church built on the foundations of an Incan temple. I guess we needed a little preparation for Cusco, which is very colonial.

Our final stop was at a textile market that sells textiles produced by 20 families who live in the mountain communities. We were shown how they process the alpaca wool, how they get more than 24 colours from plants and insects, how they dye the yarn and how they weave the textiles. (My pictures of all this are inaccessible at the moment. My phone had already died and I was using my camera. These pictures are coutesy of Raoul,) 

We then got to feed and pet their lama and alpaca before doing our shopping. So many beautiful products! It was dark by the time we left.

We got to our hotel in Cusco tired and saturated with information and the day's activities. After a quick bite, we crashed and promised ourselves a day of rest. More on that tomorrow!