Apr 07 2017– Urubamba and Ollyantambo (The Sacred Valley)
Last day all together before Sheena and Eileen head off to
the jungle.
Mandy and Paul opted for a restful day (opportunities have been few
and far between !),
Sheena, Eileen, Steve and Janette headed for the local
Friday market in Urubamba town which we had been told was an opportunity to see
all the colourful local people from the villages in their traditional clothes
when they come into town once a week to stock up on supplies.
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| Moto Taxis - Janette's new passion |
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| Be afraid, be very afraid....! |
In the main square in Urubamba, there was a great selection
of whacky Moto taxis, all customised. Janette was collecting photos of the best
ones for a collation of Moto taxi pictures. Batman was a good one with a
Perspex bat logo in the back and the hot rod with the flames on the side was
another favourite…..
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| Locals chewing the fat ! |
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Sheena and Eileen before they were
taken off to the jungle |
Moto taxi spotting finished, we headed into the market which
was full of local colour, sights and smells !!
There were hundreds of types of potatoes of all colours, Peru has up to
350 different types of potato.
We avoided the meat counters as the smell was
pretty overpowering and wandered through the melee of local life.
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The local bus service departs when its full
...and we mean full ! |
From there we decided to go on to Ollyantantambo which is
about 20 minutes away by road from where we were staying. Taxi ? No, we opted for the local collective minbus
and as the last 4 on we were all jammed in the back row with no air and it was
baking !! Cost us about 25p each.
Eileen decided that she would use her selfie stick to take a
picture of us all on the bus but to get it extended she had to take out the
locals in the seat in front. Much amusement as we tried to get a decent picture
without success !! The locals just sat
and stared at us………..we were like the light entertainment for the trip.
In Ollyantantambo the mountain goat duo (Sheena and Eileen)
headed for the archaeological site (which was as always up a very steep hill
with big steps – shame they have to worship the sun…).
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| Very pretty bars and shops around the square |
Steve decided the altitude at lower level was enough so we
wandered round the town which is entirely Inca stone buildings and streets
which is still lived in by the locals. One of the few occupied Inca towns
remaining in Peru.
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The locals walk around trying to pan handle
tourists to take a picture of them for a few coins |
The original Inca town was used as "foundations" for more recent development.
Its the only Inca town in existance with all the original walls in tact even down to the water distribution gulleys which still provide fresh mountain water to the residents.
Turns out that this is an extremely pretty town and a relaxed feel with cute restaurants and shops.
Bearing in mind that the Incas were only around for 90 years, they sure built a lot of stuff. (Smallpox was thought to have larked the end of this civilization)
We came across a pottery and as the local pottery is
renowned, we went in to have a look. The pottery wasn’t of much interest apart
from the good luck symbols they have on the roofs of the houses in Peru. This
consists of a cross (Catholic influence), two bulls (Spanish influence) and a
corn sheaf ( Inca sun god offering influence).
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| Guinea pigs for eating...yum yum !! |
We decided it was to much to try
and get pottery home in one piece but on our way out we found two huge cages of
Guinea pigs (Cuy) being bred to sell for meat. Poor little things……..
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| 35 Peruvian Sol is about £9...chips extra ! |
The guinea pigs had so far been saved by Steve's altitude sickness which meant he had lost his appetite for almost a month otherwise we are sure he would have had one...
The four of us met up again in the square and decided to
have an early dinner in Ollyantambo before going back to the school as we have
an early start tomorrow. Bad move………it was Happy Hour, so Sheena and Eileen
made full use of the two for one Pisco sours !!
The only option back to Urubamba was the collective bus
again, so we hopped aboard. As it was market day and getting late, the bus was
crammed with all sorts of local produce and the last two ladies got on board
with sheafs of green reeds for animal feed which ended up across the knees of
everyone in the front rows. It dropped
people off all along the way, and the ladies got off in the middle of nowhere
with their heavy loads in the pitch dark. Who knows how far they were going to
have to walk with all their goods for the week……..
In Urubamba we still needed to get a local taxi to get back
to the school which was a little out of town. We walked for a while with no
luck and by then we were all getting tired (the pisco sours were wearing
off….). Janette spotted a taxi parked outside a local restaurant, so we trooped
in, extracted the taxi driver from his dinner and talked him into taking us back……(we
made it worth his while, honest !!)
As it was our last night together, we decided a finale was
in order. Hosted at Sheena and Eileen’s room, Steve made up the fire, Eileen
got out the booze and to the background of David Bowie music from Eileen’s
Ipad, we had a little party. Good way to
end the day and a nice few days together
