Estamos en Ollantaytambo
Ollantaytambo – a small village in the Sacred Valley – was our next stop… This small village was actually an Inca town, and apparently has the some of the longest continually inhabited dwellings of any place in South America…
The village is high up on the list of must-see places for tourists… as was obvious from the number of tourists mulling about town AND the number of tour buses parked up outside the Ollaytantambo ruins… The fact that it is also the place where the train to Machu Picchu departs from, only exacerbates the numbers of tourists that make it here…
The village is centred around a big plaza, has a cute church, a pretty good local market, and away from the main tourist streets some normal priced menu del días!!! On the main square locals make the most of the number of tourists arriving in their once quiet village – wearing traditional dress they charge tourists to take their pictures… some children also receive colouring pencils, coca cola, sweets and other random items from tourists – who in my opinion don’t have a clue – but seem to think that they are doing some good by handing out these items to children!?!
The main reason – apart from it being the jumping off point to get to Machu Picchu – that people find themselves in Ollantaytambo is the ruins… The Inca ruins here tower over the small village, looking extremely magestic on a hill on the northeast side of the village. The Inca ruins here used to be a fortress and a temple – there are some impressive terraces, and if you head upwards – past all the tour groups listening to the spiel of the tour guide – through a small gate you will be rewarded!!! This part of the ruins seems to be off-the-beaten track! We saw only about 8 people up here – it was quiet, and the views were awesome 🙂
We tend to prefer places that see less tourists… however, in spite of the number of tourists in a relatively small space, we still really enjoyed our time in Ollantaytambo… All that remained was for us to walk to the train station to join the hundreds of other tourists heading to Aguas Calientes to visit the infamous Machu Picchu…