Return Through the Sacred Valley

June 7th 2008

After 12 hours of sleep, Fil, Anne, and I caught our train to Ollayantambo where we caught a local colectivo bus to Urubamba. From here we rented a private taxi to take us around 3 different ruins. The Salt Pans in Salinas were crazy. This is an old Incan tradition of catching water from a warm salt spring and running it along waterways into dirt baths along the side of the mountain so they can dry out in the sun (leaving abundant salt reserves for export).

The next place was the cirular terraces for agriculture. Each ring was for a different type of crop.

The final ruins were nothing too special but had a great church and many young kids begging you to buy their goods.

We caught a sketchy taxi-ride home, where you are not sure why you are on edge but confirm afterwards that a jack-knife pulled, escape plans, and clenched fists were all independently parts of the ride home (low-balling negotiations between us and rivaling drivers led to an uninterpretable mayhem before we left).