Craft Markets in the Sacred Valley

The craft markets were great fun in the Sacred Valley of Peru.  They were a bit chaotic and all the more fun for that.  What was really impressive was the variety and quality of the goods - particularly woven and knitted cloths and clothing.

The sketches are from Ollantaytambo (upper) with the Inca granaries up on the mountainside beyond and Pisac ( below), and here's the surprise - selection and especially prices were actually better in Cusco.

Tuk-Tuk Moto Taxis

One of the charming aspects of the couple of days I spent in Ollantaytambo was the put, put of the tuk-tuks.  There were a few flatbed models moving produce, but most of them were "moto taxis" running people around the small town.  There was a taxi stand of sorts near the bridge over the river, but they rarely seemed to be there for long.  The dozen or so little vehicles were all somewhat customized and so were quite recognizable, as they constantly circulated around the streets of the newer part of town.

Inca Terraces

Those busy Incas!

The Inca empire was not much more than 140 years old before the Spanish conquest and to see what they constructed in that brief time is incredible.  What struck me while visiting was the intentionality - the planing.  Their projects were not iterative ....successive waves of improvement, rather they were implemented with a high standard of workmanship towards a master plan.  The experts recon Machu Picchu was build over a period of 100 years - sort of like starting a final drawing in one corner and filing the page, except for that each stone took hours to carry and fit.

These terraces were constructed to optimize  crop space - what the crops were and why they couldn't be grown in the valley lands, I haven't learned, but can only assume there were compelling reasons to go to so much effort.  And here they are 600 years later - truly a cultural landscape.