The village of Ollantaytambo, or Ollanta as it's known by its residents, was home to a charming network of narrow cobblestone streets and irrigation channels flanked with traditional stone buildings that have been continuously inhabited by the Incas and their descendants since the 13th century. As if that alone wasn’t reason enough to warrant a trip to the village, Ollanta is also dominated by two massive Inca ruins although we had only known in advance about the archaeological park we’d seen yesterday.
But few people ever visit the other one. That was part of the reason why we decided to follow the recommendation of the helpful owner of our guesthouse/hotel to hike up to the Pinkuylluna Incan Storehouses located on the mountain behind the village and the mountain opposite the terraces.
Although we needed a boleto turístico or tourist ticket to tour the Inca ruins at the Ollantaytambo Archaeological Park yesterday (and also all the sites we were looking forward to tour in other areas throughout the Sacred Valley in the following week), entry to the ruins of Pinkuylluna was completely free of charge.
Access to the ruins was hidden away within the maze of centuries-old cobblestone streets, and was very easy to miss, even if you were actually looking for it!
Through the gate there was a small and very uneven in places stone staircase that climbed quite steeply behind the backs of the traditional stone buildings, whose crumbling roofs were the only visible sign of just how old they really were.
In the background, a very different perspective of the Inca terraces where we’d climbed
yesterday:
We could soon understand why we were cautioned to only attempt the hike if our knees and back were in good shape as it was a very steep climb! Janina: This would not have been a hike for you!
Ollanta's main square:
It may have been a recognized walkway but the path up to the ruins of Pinkuylluna was certainly not well-maintained. In parts it didn’t even look like a trail at all.
But we just kept our eye on the goal, reaching the amazing ruins and storehouses.
As I recall, these were the first flowers we saw in Ollanta - another good reason to pause from the steep hike and take a photo!
We had to pick our way through cactus plants and over loose rocks which made the trail even more challenging.
Despite the fact that Pinkuylluna held a commanding position high above the village of Ollanta, it wasn’t until we got up close to the centuries-old stone structures that we realized just how tall the walls stood and subsequently how small they made us feel.
It was a steep and vertical climb that took our breath away
in spots. But when we reached the top, we had a phenomenal view of the town
below and across to Fortress Hill. Those views made up for every ache and
pain we were sure to feel the next day!
Steven decided to rest for a bit when I discovered I could climb even higher.
The views of the village and the valley were breathtaking and well worth each step of the strenuous hike.
What a nice view of Ollanta from the top and a sense of accomplishment to know we’d managed to hike all the way there, too!
The varying shades of shale were so attractive.
We wondered what the meaning was of the letters on the far
mountain.
On our way down, we followed a path to some more granaries where we’d seen people from the terraces yesterday.
In case you didn’t read the previous post, the storage areas were called qolqas and were used by the Incas to store agricultural crops to feed the town. They made the movement of the crops easier, through the specifically built and structured narrow windows in the store houses. I overheard a guide tell his group that corn, potatoes and
quinoa would have been stored in the granaries.
The holes at the bottom were used as ventilation and to remove the stored items as needed.
We then climbed around some more granaries to get a different overview of the town.
We came across an old fortress that had been used by the Incas to guard the entrance to the valley.
We were lucky that we were able to hike and explore Pinkuylluna largely by ourselves. What a shame, however, that so few tourists take an extra day or so to stop off in Ollanta on their way to Machu Picchu as the ruins were very impressive.
Walking along the narrow ledge was one of the hairiest spots on the hike, especially since I am not a big fan of heights!
Through the opening was a view of the terraces we had climbed yesterday on the mountain across from us.
Looking for a way down as there was no marked trail at all!
There were a couple of smaller ruins we still discovered,
lots of loose shale, and yet more cacti, but the best thing was the birds eye
view of the village down below.
This looked like the remains of a watch tower perched on a promontory.
Just a while ago, we had just stood in those openings trying to find the best route down as the path wasn’t clearly marked!
We were both glad to take a breather once we got back to our room as the hike had been more challenging that we'd planned, partly because we had spent so much time just exploring in difficult terrain and on mostly unmarked paths.
In the afternoon, we decided to take another hike but a
shorter and less adventurous one this time!
We walked through town, past the school and the stadium, fields of corn on terraces to the river once again at the recommendation of our hotel owner.
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Oh yeah, yet more ruins to explore!
This looked remarkably like a campfire circle that we were
so accustomed to seeing back home in state and national parks. I wished there
had been some information available to learn what these ruins had once been. As that wasn't the case, we were left to wonder and imagine who had wandered in this area so many centuries ago.
In the background, a view of the granaries where we’d hiked this morning:
As at the Inca ruins in the archaeological park yesterday, farmers were tending their crops on terraces in the same way as their ancestors had done so many centuries previously.
It was fun traipsing among the cornfields until we saw the cows. Luckily they were tethered!
One lone flower in the middle of some dirt:
We were certainly ready to enjoy dinner consisting of pizza and a Cusquena beer, i.e. a beer from Cusco, for Steven, that night after all the hiking we'd done the last couple of days! As
you might have gathered, Steven normally tries a local beer at dinner most
nights wherever we are in the world on our overseas trips. Surprisingly to me,
a non-beer drinker, he said they were all pretty much the same!
Next post: Train journey to Machu Picchu, our 'goal' for our trip to South America.
Posted on January 2nd, 2018, from Littleton,Colorado.
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