Ollantaytambo: Indigenous visits

On our last night in the Amazon we were greeted not only with a Goodbye cake but also with a very loud, very stupid, American girl who has since provided us with mountains of comedy material. We decided to name her Mary Mary Quite Contrary as she constantly contradicted herself or outlandishly criticised us if we dared to oppose her. These are some classic Mary phrases that have been imported in to our repertoire:

“Machu Picchu is AMAZING. I mean totally worth it. The trek is hard, really, really hard but I was fine. It was mind blowing. I mean, I didn’t get to see it coz I got really sick. I literally EXPLODED… but it was AMAZING.”

Her response when I asked what you get to see on the Inca trail, to try and make me change my mind about it: “Oh my God. There are the most AMAZING flowers. They’re pink. I mean NE-ON pink. They’re amazing.” Oh you’ve sold it to me Mary, I’m definitely up for 3 days hard slog at 5,000m altitude now. Why has no one mentioned the flowers before??

A discussion about giving birth. At breakfast. “You can give birth standing up!?” Other American girl replies sagely, with no sarcasm what so ever: “Yeah. Gravity.”

“We went to the Shaman and she made four different potions with palm sugar. She was like 95, I mean it was AMAZING just being next to her because she was sooo old. I mean, no one knows how old she is, she looks 60, but she’s 95. She poured the potions on us and then she sucked our ears….”  Do NOT know how we didn’t laugh in her face at that one.

“I don’t get on with the gym. I’m heavy, I mean HEAVY. If you don’t know what that means, it means fat” – Thanks for the clarity.

“They have snakes here!?” – Yes love, you’re in the fucking Amazon.

We left the Amazon after an amazing week. We literally could find nothing to fault with our experience, my highlight being canoed around while reading my book. Once back in Iquitos, I was able to wash my hair with hot water, for about 5 minutes – before I used up all the water (hot and cold) in the entire hotel. Our Amazon guide Wennie accompanied us to the airport until it was time to depart. We arrived in Lima in the evening, ate in TGI Fridays, stayed in a great/terrible hostel in Lima called HQ Villa – which was in a gorgeous old mansion but had terrible beds and no water (not even to flush the toilet), caught a plane to Cusco and got a 2hr taxi to Ollantaytambo.

Ollantaytambo is a really quaint, quiet little town away from the hustle and bustle of Cusco, which is rather unattractive and touristy. It sits about 3,500m above sea level and is heralded as one of the finest archeological complexes in Peru. The area contains a variety of Incan ruins: religious, astronomical, administrative and urban built in to the mountains.

The actual town consists of 4 main vertical streets, with horizontal side streets running across them. The majority of locals wear  traditional Peruvian dress. Everything is made of stone and the streets are cobbled. Huge snow-capped mountains envelop the town and are dotted with Incan ruins.

Ollantaytambo market:

‘Casa De Wow’, the hostel we are in now is excellent. It is run by a spiritualist from America Winnie and her Peruvian other half, Wow. The beds are incredible and even better is the fact it has hot water and the amazing freshly baked bread in the morning. Paddy’s window looks straight out over the Incan ruins in the mountain side.

My bed:

Paddys view:

Yesterday, Winnie organised a local guide, called Wethir, to take us up in to the mountains to meet some of the indigenous families who live there, away from the civilisation of the towns and villages. They are entirely self-sufficient, living in small stone and mud houses – but were very grateful for the sugar, oil and fruit we brought them as gifts.  We peaked at about 4,000m above sea level and going uphill was hard going, after about 20ft I needed to catch my breath.

It was a total off the beaten path experience and we had the opportunity to meet the local people and enter their homes. In one of the homes, I gave my camera to a little boy who had been captivated viewing the pictures I took of him. I spent some time teaching him how to use it and off he trotted for the remainder of our visit, taking some rather good photos which I will claim as my own.

The families were extremely welcoming and some cooked us food and made us mint tea. They may look poor but they are happy with their lot and utilise their land extensively to sustain themselves. Many generations have lived on the same plot of land and they have no intentions of moving to a town or city, away from what they know.

I was rather surprised to learn more about the indigenous tribes who live in the surrounding mountains from Wethir. Apparently, their last president was so eager to wipe out the indigenous cultures, that he enforced a mass sterilisation of 200,000+ women, which is just outrageous to think about.

Read more about the mass sterilisation here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2148793.stm

Ollantaytambo and the surrounding ‘Sacred Valley’ is a very spiritual place and particularly attracts the kind of hippie/ alternative lifestyle traveller. Keen to find the infamous hallucinogenic cactus’. Meditation and rituals are carried out regularly to celebrate everything remotely nature/spirit-based and the phrase ‘connecting with Mother Earth’ is something that is constantly repeated.

To combat altitude sickness, the locals round here constantly chew on Cocoa leaves,  which takes away the headaches and gives you a bit more energy. As you meet the locals, it is polite to let them help themselves to your bag of leaves. Before we were allowed to try the Cocoa leaves, Wethir said he had to perform a little ceremony, burning bits of ‘special’ wood (that he had selected from the ground) on a rock along with some of the Cocoa leaves. Afterwards, he poured an entire bag of Cocoa leaves on the ground and read each of our futures with the leaves.

I don’t usually believe in any of that bollocks, but it was very strange and actually touched a nerve. He told Pads he needed to broaded his mind and think outside the box. I think he was referring to Pads’ overall scepticism. After the leaves ceremony, we walked for about 5 miles back down the mountain to Ollantaytambo taking in the amazing views and largely getting out of breath. Fab day overall.

http://www.awamaki.org/ offers more info on Ollytamtambo

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