Pisac

Pisac is a one hour bus ride ($.75) from Cuzco - Translink take note of the price. The bus companies have a habit of overselling seats, but I was fortunate to get a seat. The ride to Pisac (start of the Sacred Valley) is a beautifully scenic drive. The Andes on both sides are lush and bold, right in your face. The horendous mudslides of a few months ago have definitely left their mark, with sections of the road still washed out and many homes and stores destroyed and left in disrepair. Very sad that such destruction happened to so many people around here. It makes me appreciate all the blessings in my life and ponder what volunteer work I can do to best help the people here. Also, it makes me assess how my travelling here affects the people, both in positive and negative ways.

We have come to Pisac on Sunday for 2 reasons: the ruins and the famous market.
We start out in the market and after hours of walking around, I understand why this market is so famous. We have only covered a portion of this massively sprawling market, although many vendors sell the same thing: Andean toques, mittens, sweaters and trinkets. These are the best salespeople I think I have ever seen. They use every trick in the book and even tricks I have never seen before to get you to buy things. There is so much competition, however, that bargaining is expected and most of the fun. I was looking for a baby alpaca sweater (the most prized of all wearable goods) and found one that grabbed my eye. The lady assured me it was pure baby alpaca and the tag verified this - or did it? In these markets, one never knows for sure. But, it was the softest sweater I have ever felt and it fit good, so it was time to bargain. In total, it was about a 15 min bargaining specatacle. I got the vendor down from 70 soles to 40 soles, or about $14. We both felt like we won. I later found out, it was baby alpaca mixed with some synthetics, but for that price I assumed so.

Pisac is a wonderful town that enjoys a much slower pace than Cuzco. I know I will return to spend some more time here.

After a nap and lunch (beef tongue, chicha morrada - purple corn drink, and quinoa soup for $2.50) we made our way to the ruins, high above the city. After walking around these marvelous structures that still stand after earthquakes and time, Adam and I came across this structure perched high on the mountain with a panoramic view. Utterly spectacular. It felt special here. We stayed here taking it all in, chewed coca leaves and made an offering to PachaMamma - mother earth, as is Incan custom. As the sun set, the light reflected off the mountains in magical ways that seemed to change by the minute. We found out that this was where bodies were prepared for burial or mummification.

As precious little daylight remained, we reluctantly left to make our way back down to Pisac. On our way we passed many more structures which we could idenify as temples, nobility or residential housing or storage buildings based on the architecture. The aquiducts are another marvel. They are made of stone and pass underground to various baths or collecting reservoirs.

This place was enormous and the architecture is even more precise than that of Macchu Pichu. Luckily we brought our headlamps because now it is pitch dark out and we have no idea where we are going. We wander around the ruins in the dark and down trails that lead to dead ends. By this time, the altitude is getting to me and I am quite tired and have a headache and slightly lightheaded. So, I take a break and start chewing more coca leaves. I am seriously pondering about staying the night in the ruins, although it is starting to get quite chilly at this altitude. We push on for awhile and come across some ruins with grass roofs. With no exit in sight, my mind is made up, this is where I am going to sleep for the night.

Just as I am figuring out how to best make this as comfortable as possible, we hear a man coming. It is a guard. He escorts us down the mountain and back to Pisac where we have earned our dinner and much needed sleep.