Ollantaytambo

We arrived in Ollantaytambo fairly late in the day, so found our hostal, grabbed a bite to eat, then crashed for the night.  We were up bright and early to tour the ruins that lay on the outskirts of this small village, which is one of the best examples of Inca city planning, with narrow cobblestone streets that have been continuously inhabited since the 13th century.  This site marks one of the few places where the Spanish conquistadors lost a major battle, and is the location of Manco Inca's retreat after his ultimate defeat at Sacsaywaman.  When the Spanish attacked, they were showered with arrows, spears and boulders from atop the steep terracing and were unable to climb to the fortress.  Further, the plain below the fortress was flooded by the Inca causing horses to be bogged down in the water, and forcing a retreat. 

 

This is the ceremonial center at the top of the terracing. You can still see Inca symbols, the shape of their calendar, carved into the rock here (zoom in real tight!!)

One of the many doorways on the way up to the top of the ruins.  These rocks all had small knobs at the bottom, which may have been used to hang precious items, or as shelves to sit precious items on.

 Below in the valley lies the ceremonial baths tucked behind the left mountain, in the centre is a commons area where great walls were being built, and on the far mountain, there are other ruins that are only just being excavated.

Unfortunately, the Incas' victory was short lived, as the Spanish forces soon returned with a quadrupled cavalry force and Manco Inca fled to this jungle strong hold in Vilcabamba. 

We headed back into town and and started our travels into Aguas Calientes.  Rather than pay the steep fair to travel by train, we opted for the more scenic view and took the long way in! This tour started in Ollantaytambo, where we grabbed the last bus bound for Quillabumba, and after about 3 hours, jumped off at Santa Teresa. During this ride we met a man from England who had been touring around South America for several years - he was a bit of a conspiracy theorist, so it made the conversation very interesting! We also met a little boy who decided sitting with his parents wasn't going to happen this bus ride, and opted to sit with the three of us at the back of the bus! By the end of the trip he was hanging his head out the window and crawling all over us if he wanted a view from the other side of the bus! The photo below is just a very small portion of the road we traveled up the mountains, then back down the other side.

I have no photos for the next few hours as for the most part, I was terrified stiff! After jumping off the bus at Santa Theresa, we hopped into a car and headed for the hour long ride to Santa Maria.  Somehow, I managed to get the window seat looking over the edge of the cliff the entire way there! YIKES! I'll admit it, for the most part, my head was buried in Dejans shoulder, as we were scarily close to the edge, and I'm not all that fabulous when it comes to heights! As far as I was concerned, we were in a rally car from HELL!  We were passing other buses full of tourists, as well as big tractors and dump trucks that were on the mountain side to clear the road of falling debris - Yes, falling debris - Yeeeee! So, we arrive safely in Santa Maria, and I'm counting my lucky stars! We jump into the next collectivo, and find that this trip won't be quite as roomy - it's a station wagon, with two adults in the front, 4 adults and a child in the back seat and one adult with all of the luggage in the back hatch area - needless to say, we were sitting on top of each other all of the way to the Hydro Electric Station.  Again, with the ruff road and cliff edge, but not quite as bad since we were already fairly low in the valley.  We arrived at the Hydro Electric Station with just enough time to catch the 45 minute train into Aguas Calientes, where my photos below pick up! This is a photo of the mountain side view during our train ride. Not sure what mountain side it is, but it sure was beautiful!

Dejan in the train!

What a rush! Finally, we arrived in Aguas Calientes, checked out a few of the hostals, and found one with the perfect room! A nice big window, and a king size brand new mattress, we will sleep well tonight!!!