Ollantaytambo ruin climb, Perurail expedition ride, Aguascaleintes

Nov 29: Started the day early...

6am, We had breakfast at our hotel and walked to the ruins...

7am-10.30 am: Ollantaytambo ruin climb

on the way to the ruins...

During the Inca Empire, Ollantaytambo was the royal estate of Emperor Pachacuti who conquered the region, built the town and a ceremonial center. At the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru it served as a stronghold for Manco Inca Yupanqui, leader of the Inca resistance. 

at the entrance to the ruins

At the northern end of the Sacred Valley, Ollantaytambo is a massive citadel located 50 kilometers from Machu Picchu. The citadel served as both a temple and a fortress. At some time unknown, and for reasons unknown, work mysteriously stopped on this huge project.

in for a looong climb...

Pinkuylluna ruins in background

The village stretching out; Pinkuylluna ruins and Wiracocha etched on the mountain visible as well

The stone masonry here is awesome...

nubs in the stones where ropes were tied to transport them

reaching the famous temple of the sun

The Sun Temple was constructed with huge red porphyry (pink granite) boulders. 

The stone quarry is Kachiqhata (Salt Slope) and is 4 km (2.5 miles) away on other side of the valley. 

The boulders were carved partially in the quarries, and taken down to the valley's bottom. 

Templo del Sol--sun temple

To cross the river Quechuas constructed an artificial channel parallel to river bed for deviating water. 

while water flowed through one channel the other was dry, stones were taken to valley's other side. 

The boulders were transported to the upper spot where the temple is erected using the inclined plane; 

its silhouette is clearly seen from the valley's bottom. 

They used log rollers as wheels, Llama' leather ropes, levers, pulleys, and thousands of men.

view from above

on the way to temple of water after getting down from the main ruins

Templo del agua

winding our way back to our hotel... along the river Patakancha...  this leads to the back entrance

yard in our hotel... breakfast room above

common area of hotel

Nice kitchen at our disposal... we used it well. Loved the fact we had unlimited supply of filtered drinking water too

Our window was our food counter... made fresh yogurt daily in this casserole. We had brought a pile of home made tortillas and tomato relish as we always do for travels

After lunch, we caught the 12.58 expedition train to Aguas Calientes.  

(we had bought the tickets after emailing Perurail as the site did not work for us). 

At the station to board our expedition train to Aguascalientes

Lovely trip, our seats were on the preferred left side along the river. 

had a scenic journey from the preferred left side seats

our hotel sent staff to greet us... the hotel is just across the road... we had to wait for the train to leave

Checked in at hostal adelas with a lovely river view room. 

comfy room with a lovely river view

fountain at street center; has the Inca with the revered symbols, snake, puma and condor

We walked around the small town, admiring local craft displayed...grills are incan cross, walls are replica; stools rustic and pretty...

ANDEAN CROSS: Also called CHAKANA in the Quechua language and INCA CROSS. It is thought to represent Pachamama or the Mother Earth. The Chakana is a three-stepped cross, similar to meaning to the Tree of Life and the World Tree in other mythologies. In the ancient times, an Inca shaman journeyed through the central axis, in a trance, to the lower plane or the Underworld and to the higher levels, inhabited by the superior Gods, to find out the reasons for misfortunes on the Earth level.

Alpaca figure on rug made of alpaca wool

We walked to the main plaza with this fountain...visited the church also.

These flowers are Napoleon's hat... there are also plenty of calentulas, the national flower of Peru

closer look at the incan symbols...The snake, puma and condor are symbolic representatives of the three levels. The SNAKE, Uqhu Pacha, represents the lower or underworld. The middle world of humans, called Kay Pacha, is represented by the PUMA. The upper world of the Gods, Hanan Pacha, is represented by the CONDOR.

These Inca symbols are found in Incan architecture and artwork. It was also believed that when a person died, the soul went to the underworld, and the puma would descend into the underworld to collect it. The condor would then take it to the upper world of the Gods

Another interesting sculpture...

Bought the bus tickets to MP for the next day at the counter before retiring for the day