Day ?? Ollantaytambo

Ollantaytambo was our first (and so far only) stop in the Sacred Valley. Ollantaytambo is home to some very important Incan ruins.... one of the last strongholds of the Incan Empire (versus the Spaniards). The Spaniards first attempt to attack did not work - they were showered with arrows from above by the Incans in the ruins, and the Incans flooded the valley with water... the Spaniards retreated, chased by the victorious Incans... check out the pics and imagine how effective this fortress was! The Spaniards came back later with many more troops however and did conquer this site. The fortress is built into the side of a mountain... there was another smaller fortress on another mountain on the other side of the valley.

The view from the top of the ruins, looking down.

It was SO WINDY at the top of the mountain! Dave was holding on to his hat.

My hair was wild with the wind.

Standing on top of Ollantaytambo... you can see more ruins behind me on the other mountain.

Now these are some pictures from a hike we took around the valley... do you see the pig laying on the ground next to the horse? Those are 3 Peruvian children by the way approaching the horsey.

Dave's fake smile is due to this being the umpteenth picture!

Okay these are more pictures of the ruins... sorry the order is messed up, but it takes too long to fix!

Now these again are pictures from our hike.

Here´s Dave by a huge cactus octopus.. there are many of these of various sizes here. In the background you can see the enormousness of Ollantaytambo in comparison to the village.

This is the railway line that runs to Machu Picchu, straight through the mountains in the distance. This is the "only" way to Machu Picchu - by train. We found a cheaper way out though!!! :) More later.

Remember the pig from the start of our hike? This is what it looked like at the end of our hike, when we returned to this spot. I snuck a picture of the pig, but I didn't take a picture of the villagers for fear of offending them... I'll describe it - there was about 12 people by the water, children and adults, and they were all going through the process of preparing the pig meat. Some women were washing out the intestines by putting a hose in one side and spraying the water through it.. the men were chopping the torso of the pig.. the kids were half playing half helping. It seemed like a very natural scene - I'm sure much less disgusting than our factory farming!!