We
were up and off by 8 on our way to sacred Valley. It is called sacred Valley
because the incas believed that the Urubamba river was connected to the milky
way which was very important to them. After driving around a bit we made our
way to Pisaq (partridge in quechua) where we walked through a market and
learned a little about the silver trade which is what they are known for. While
in the market I had chicha morada which is a tea made from red corn. They also
make beer from the corn which is called chicha.
From
here we made our way to the archaeological site. On the side of the mountain
there were numerous holes which are actually incan tombs but unfortunately they
were all robbed before they were found by archaeologists so all that was left
were bones. We had a quick walk around the site before heading back to the bus
as the rain started again. From the site we had great views of the patch work
like mountainside.
The
incas used to choose where to start their villages based on where they found
spring water. They tended to build their
villages on rocks in order to maximise the available farm land. From here we
made our way to lunch in a little town where we had a buffet and all was very
yummy.
Once
back at the hostel we went to get some dinner (shared a pizza because we were
still full from lunch) before making our way to Wild Rover for some St Paddy's
day celebrations. Fortunately we were out most of the day as the place was
chaos and people had been celebrating since the early morning. We stayed until
about 2 before calling it a night as we needed to be up for another tour in the
morning.