May 10 2025
So I’m back in ollantaytambo. No mishaps getting here, tho the colectivos don’t go past here. If you don’t get out at the plaza they dump you at the train station at the end of town, and this ain’t a big town. My hotel is right below the archeological site I visited my first week in Peru, and my window looks right out on it.
What I didn’t realize when I was last here is just how many Incan sites are here that tourists don’t know about. Tourists only typically go to the sites covered by the boleto touristico (the aptly named “tourist ticket”). There are MANY more. Most are free. You just have to know they exist.
After I arrived I had lunch, and then I went wondering around. Took a wrong turn down an alley, kept going because I didn’t have anything better to do and it was pretty. Ended up circling behind the high school soccer field and discovering yet another Incan site.
It’s a valley floor site that’s still being used for agriculture, which answered some questions I had about why go through the trouble of building terraces when there’s a perfectly usable valley floor. Turns out, they did. But, unlike the terraces, most of the valley floor sites have been lost to modern agriculture. Much harder to get a tractor up on a mountain side, so those sites survived.
I also wondered down to the entrance to the town, discovered a section of original Incan road and the original Incan gate to the town.
The Incan road continues on for a ways. Fairly easy flat hike along a working Incan aqueduct. Eventually it comes to another small site called Inkapintay, which is right next to the highway.
Moseyed back to town and wondered through “old town”. Discovered the modern descendants of the Incans that lived here built their houses directly on top of their Incan ancestors houses, so many of the buildings have original Incan foundations and doorways.
Also saw a wedding procession go through town, with native dancers trailing the bride and groom, which was super interesting to watch.
Tomorrow the plan is to hike further down the Inka trail to a site called Naupa Iglesia (Choquequilla). My understanding is it’s about a 3 hour round trip hike, which isn’t bad. And if I’m not feeling too lazy when I get back I’ll hike up to pinkuylluna and finally check that site out.
