Ollantaytambo

We are in the Sacred Valley, surrounded by the Andes mountains, at an elevation of around 8,000 feet and guess what---sunflowers! Dorothy, are we still in Kansas?
I loved Ollantaytambo---it was a wonderful little village, built by the Inca Pachacuti and still seems the same as it was then---beautiful little cobblestone streets, stone canals running through town in all directions, Inca walls, Andes mountains looming all around. It was a feast for the senses!


We love to climb, so we found a little path that let up the mountain that faced the ruins and overlooked the village of Ollantaytambo. Here I am with the ruins on the mountain in the background.

These are the ruins of Inca storehouses. The Incas kept storehouses full of supplies of food, clothing, tools, weapons, etc. all along the routes between villages. These storehouses were on the mountain we climbed.

I always think of cactus as being a plant that grows in the desert---hot, dry, flat... but here on the side of the mountain was this skinny little cactus. There were other types of cactus---one that I would call the prickly pear, and they were huge---some probably 6 feet tall and about 4 feet wide. I think the variety of vegetation was an example of the diversity of climates that you see in Peru.

This is the plaza in Ollantaytambo at around 6:30 in the morning. The wispy clouds were floating over the town and it was so peaceful and scenic. Grant's on a mission to find something to eat before we head over to the ruins, which open at 7 a.m.