Ollantaytambo, Peru

The same day that I visited Moray and the Salt Pans of Maras, I then took a collectivo for Ollantaytambo. I arrived at around 3pm on the 22th of August. When I got there it was still early enough and I decided to go visit the ruins right away. I walked from the little ''hospedaje'' I had found for 15 soles to get there, since the town is small and it was not very far away. Small town but still very nice.

 

The ruins are pretty spectacular for the fact that you have a great view of them from the town. The most part of the ruins are terraces but there is something different about the way that they were built. From the top of the ruins you have a great view of the town and of the mountain in front where there are a few houses in ruins. In fact they are not houses, it is thought that they were storage places for the crops to be stored.

 

I took my time to walk around et walked all around the site and got out at around 5h30 pm. I went back to my room and cooked myself some supper with my camping equipment. Around 9pm, I was in bed because I had to get up extra early to take the train to Aguas Caliente.

I came back to Ollantaytambo on the 28th of August in the morning after my trek from Chinchero et Huayllabamba, I arrived at around 11h30am, found a small room and soon after leaving my backpack there I headed to the mountain opposite to the main ruins to climb up. The town is at 2850 meters of altitude and this mountain goes up to 3900 meters. I started by going up to the storage shacks and then I decided to keep going. Sadly I did not make it to the top, which was what I had in mind, but instead got up to about 3600 meters. Once I got to that point I realized that there was still quite a bit to go and the more I went the smaller was the trail and the harder it was to follow it because it was a lot more steeper.  There was also the wind factor at this altitude above the valley, it was getting perilous to want to continue. Too bad, there was a flag at the top where I would have liked to get. I had to think that I would have to climb back down and that would also be a challenge.

Click on pictures to see the whole Ollantaytambo album

 

A view from were I got on the mountain (pretty high)

Small video of Ollantaytambo

I was able to climb back down without bruises but at one time I slipped and had to put my hands to the ground to hold myself and that's when I had to put my hand on a cactus. I was a bit painful but without hurting myself too much.

Once I got back to town, I found a small restaurant for cheap and had a well deserved meal. I was exausted from my day and went to bed around 9pm again. On the morning of the 29th, I wanted to do another trek that goes to the Inca quarry and then to the Sun Gate (Inti Punku), but it was a quite hard trek (the part to get to Inti Punku), so I decided to pass and took a collectivo and headed back to Cusco.

Landscape on the way back to Cusco