Based at an altitude of 3,300m many visitors experience altitude sickness and there are lots of oxygen tank emergency services around to keep all the seniors from fainting. I didn’t take this too seriously at first but ultimately am glad that we followed the advice of not staying in Cusco and first acclimatize at a lower altitude. We settled down one hour away from Cusco in a village called Pisaq and even there at 2,500m had both quite some headache the first day or two.

Pisaq is situated in a river-valley surrounded by mountains and was once a large Inca settlement. In opposite to modern settlers, the Incas preferred to build their cities on the hills instead of the valleys, in particular to be better protected against the common earthquakes and landslides. The well preserved Pisaq ruins are a great introduction into Inca architecture and at the same time reward the hiking with impressive views on surrounding mountains and Pisaq valley.

The Inkas are famous for their advanced techniques in city-planning and building and in Pisaq we got introduced to their elaborate agricultural terraces and their engineering skills, building stone-houses without mortar by aligning stones perfectly with each other.

Setting a sign against the growing epidemic of selfies we created our own couple-version of the classical portrait shoot,  taking a photo of each other from our respective location:

Still acclimatizing, we choose the lazy option of taking the taxi up the mountains and walking down, which was just nice for us.

Very few tourists are staying in Pisaq and most come as part of a day-tour to see the ruins and the huge market, which apparently once was the biggest artisan market in South America (but now of fading importance). Our couple-run hostel was therefore very quiet and we enjoyed its nice garden and panoramic views.

Following the course of the river we continued to the next major Inca site Ollayantaytambo (great these names, no?) via local transportations of bus and minivan. On our first leg we chatted with a funny Peruvian hippie, who spends his life following some esoteric Inca lines and lives from selling his handmade flutes and art.

When changing van halfway in Urubamba he gave us a short intro to the place and brought us to the local market for lunch. It reminded me of a more rustic version of Singapore’s hawker centers. The set menu always comes with soup and a choice among 2 or 3 main dishes, but after the delicious soup filled with potatoes and vegetables we were already so stuffed we could barely finish one third of the main. And all for EUR 1.5 (SGD 2)!

We were lucky and it was the day of the weekly market where the whole surrounding countryside comes to sell their crops, fruits and meat. Streets were packed with food and there was so many kinds of fruits and vegetables we have never seen before, we gave up trying to remember all their names. Just the variety of potatoes, in all kinds of colors, sizes and textures is amazing.

Ollantaytambo is particularly interesting as it has a well preserved Inca city-layout with (narrow) cobbled streets, irrigation channels and many houses which have been continuously inhabited since the 13th century.

It also boosts an important Inca temple (later turned fortress in defense of the Spaniards) and has some smaller ruins spread out in the hills. The village gets pretty crowded as its the last stop before Machu Picchu and its main entrance point with the start of the Inca trail and the main train station (there is no easy road access to Machu Picchu). We therefore stayed three nights to spread out our activities in the quieter mornings and late afternoons.

The Inca temple/fortress impresses with even bigger (perfectly aligned) stones and accurately designed terraces

To get from one terrace to another people used (and sometimes still use) stoned staircases, integrated into the terrace-wall

After learning so much about the Inca culture, we were ready for the highlight of the tour

Machu Picchu here we come!