Sacred valley tour from Cusco

Most Sacred valley tour that we had seen started so early in the morning, luckily ours starts at 7h30 am only. And Nilo our guide is on time. There is only another couple to pick up and I am glad that we are such a small group.

Xixi and Dawang are from China but live in the US and are on a short vacation in Peru, they are lovely.

We have about 30min drive to a Camelids farm. I wasn’t sure about this stop, but it was surprisingly good! Nilo explained the differences between Huanaco, Lama, Vicuna and Alpaca. I have about 100 pictures of all these animals. They spit and fight for the small food that we are allowed to give them. There are some condors as well to see.

Of course, there is something to sell – here it’s Alpaca garments. But the shop keeper first explains how to differentiate real from fake, and then let’s us touch all different types of wool and furs. It’s actually very educational as well and not such a hard sell which what I was afraid of. Then you are left to roam into their shop without any pressure. Alexis bought a beanie (since he didn’t have one) and I got myself a nice and colorful buff. It is pricey, but I think we can spend a little for ourselves once in a while.

From the farm to our first archeological stop – the ruins of Pisac – it’s barely 20min drive. The Inca complex of Pisac is huge! I wasn’t expecting the scale of this. It’s a ton of terrasses and 5 communities or villages that are high up in the mountain. We walk through two “village” and along the main terrasses. We could have easily spent 2 to 3 hours wandering the ruins. And I half regret not doing this independently to take our time. But then Nilo is so knowledgeable, that the short itinerary we walk does make the old stones come alive. It’s also our first real experience of high season – this site was crowded ( and it is big ), 30 to 50 buses and minivans – it’s high season in Peru and it is touristy. We manage to visit comfortably because it’s only the 5 of us and Nilo navigates through the narrow pathways to find good spots to share stories. In a big group, that would have been an experience I wouldn’t have enjoyed.

We are done with Pisac about 11 am and it’s an hour to the buffet restaurant that Nilo has recommended. None of us are really keen on that. An expensive ( PEN75 /pax ) tourist only restaurant, at high season, doesn’t seem like a good experience to me. It just feels like a tourist trap. There will be guinea pig for us to try he says. After insisting, since lunch is not included in the tour, we ask him to find us a cheaper and more authentic option. The driver has a suggestion – we will get there after visiting Maras salt pools.

Maras salt pools are a surprising sight to see. The 4000 pools are hanging on a cliff edge in a steep valley. They are shades of brown, white or pink. They glister in the hard afternoon sun. The salt comes from a naturally salty spring water. This spring fills the pools and then with evaporation produces salt. It can take as little as 9 days for harvesting when the sun is right. And these pools date pre-inca times, thousand of years old ! Nilo shares about how the salt cooperative is working now and its history. At the entrance we each got a small 50gr free pink salt sachet. We will have enough until the end of our trip! We haven’t yet finished the one we bought in New-Zealand…

Once we finished touring the salt pools, the driver brings us to the restaurant he recommended called Inkasal on the upper part of Maras village. As we drive through the town, Nilo points at lintels on top of small house doors. They have intricate carvings and most have some catholic references. He explains that the reason most of the high Inca village were deserted because the Spanish to control the population, made them go down in the valleys. In the village of Maras they had evangelized the Inca and relocated the noble class. Hence the nicer door frames.

Inkasal is a nice little restaurant ( but it’s clearly for tourist too ), however it’s a nice menu at PEN45 per pax and we there is an attempt at gourmet. It’s quite tasty and comes with a view of the valley. All in all a good choice from the driver and the four of us are happy about it.

We still have two more inca sites to visit. Moray is barely 10min drive. I saw online that is was terrasse in a circle shape. And again I was quite impressed at the size of this site. We got to learn that they were greenhouses, or experimental terrasses where the Inca were experimenting with various crops from everywhere from their empire.

After walking through and learning more about Inca diet, we drove the 40min remining to Ollantaytambo. This is the last stop and the village that is the most touristy. It’s mostly because from there it’s the last train stop before Macchu Piccu and I think a lot of people chose to sleep here before or after visiting it. It would make a great base to visit the sacred valley. But the two has a massive unfinished temple on its edge, and sits at the bottom of a few mountains. On each of these mountains are Inca storage facilities, terrasses and massive remains. 

I was very impressed at the size of this site again – it’s also very high, which provides a beautiful view once we climbed up to the top. We were also there at sunset – and the light was beautiful.

It was time to bid our guide goodbye as we arrive at the bottom of the terrasses. He will continue on with Xixi and Dawang to Macchu Picchu with the train later tonight while we drive back to Cusco.

We had a wonderful day – it was exceptionally worth it to have such as excellent guide. I don’t think you can appreciate all the sites if you don’t have one. 

In hindsight the perfect way to visit the sacred valley would be with your own car. The roads are pretty good, I am sure with maps.me or some other online mapping tool you can make your itinerary. The few dirt roads we drove on were not as bad as what we had in San Pedro de Atacama. You just need to find an independent guide and have him with you for maybe two days driving around. You could stay in Ollantaytambo. 

We needed 1h30 to reach Cusco. We knew we were going to be tired after a long day so Alexis’s had prepared a stew. After a quick reheat – diner was ready and we could relax for the rest of the evening.