Today Susan, Tim and I began our first day of touring in Peru. We left Cusco  early around 7:30 AM. We joined a tour of 10 people total. Our tour today was of the Sacred Valley of the Inca.

Our first stop was at Pisaq at about 11000 feet of elevation. We saw the large Incan complex of agricultural terraces, residences, guard posts, watchtowers and a ceremonial/religious centre located along a mountain ridge above the modern town of Pisac. In the mountain rising up from the terraces is a big Incan cemetery with over 3000 remains.

The terraces grew different things, depending on which side of the mountain they were on and how high up they were.

When we return to the van, we drove to a silver shop ostensibly to see how Silver is made, but really it was to have us buy silver from this shop. Instead, I got a bottle of water and had my photo taken with the baby alpaca. After this stop everyone, but us had lunch. There was nothing else around the lunch spot, but my stomach was queasy from the winding roads and Susan‘s from the altitude.

Our last stop was in 0llantaytambo. We went there to see the Ollantaytambo ruins for which this town is famous. The ruins include a massive Inca fortress with large stone terraces on the hillside. We walked all the way up to the Sun Temple. After our tour, we were dropped at our hotel and checked in. We got a recommendation for a mid afternoon meal since we skipped to lunch and it was really good.

After lunch, Tim and I wandered through the old town which is an Inca-era grid of cobblestoned streets and adobe buildings. There’s a water running down, narrow canals throughout the city.

The weather so far has been good very warm during the day in the 70s and very cold at night in the 30s and 40s. Tomorrow we do day two of our tour.