Ollantaytambo Inca Ruins

These ruins at Ollantaytambo are very impressive and when you see ruins with very tight walls of stone, it is a sign that you are in a sacred place. The ruins are always placed on the top of mountains so you have to admire the builders of these places. This was the last stop of a full day tour from Cusco to Pizaq and Urubamba. The watercourse was also a legacy from the Incas, which runs beside the road in Ollantaytambo in the town itself.

Urubamba

This was a local potter that we visited, he dug clay from behind his house. All the eating houses support the local potters because they all use the same dark red clay glazed on top with a white glaze which is very strong. This potter hammered a nail into wood with a beaker. They also feature designs from the Inca period and also the Nasdec lines such as the hummingbird and the condor and others. The couger was some monument we passed and the little boys were hard pressed to sell me something. I carried with me badges of Australian animals. flag stickers and balloons, and smallkoalas and kangaroos to hand out to the choldren. They always told me that Canberra was the Capital of Australia, so it must be something they learned at school.

Inca ruins at Pisaq

Roadside clay structure and Pisaq markets

Cusco mud brick dwelling

Cusco, Peru

Photos from Peru

I have just begun to sort my photos after the trip to Peru and Antartica, back in November 08, but just to whet your interest I'll post a few of the first day's photos looking around Cusco and the Sacred Valley. We went to a village run, weaving community project,Awana Kancha, and the work was beautiful, but very expensive. The women were so colourful in their own woven clothes.

There were houses being built all the time and they would all have pottery Cross, ladder, two bulls and two containers,one for blessed water and the other an offering of an alcoholic beverage, placed on the top of the roof when their house was finished and blessed.