Ollantaytambo PERU TOUR Review – Best Sacred Valley Place to Plant In

Ollantaytambo or Machu Picchu?

Machu Picchu may be what put Peru’s archeological wonders on your map, but nearby Ollantaytambo in many ways might end up being an equal in Peru treasure memories. By this writer’s fascination -per foot meter, they are indeed equals.

Crowds are smaller and the brilliance of Inca engineering and construction is just as clear to see, if not clearer. More--unlike Aguas Caliente, the tourist trap one has to go through to get to Machu Picchu--Ollantaytambo is a soothing and delightful town to spend some time in. For those who have already toured the archeological site, you get the added advantage of being able to just look up from the town square to revisit your peeks at the Inca granaries, temples, and trails.

When you arrive at the archeological site you hike up to the top and take it all in with panoramic scan. The exquisitely fitted jigsaw puzzle pieces of the Inca buildings are up close. Across Urubamba River below you see the next mountain where these enormous stones from quarries 5KM away had to be crossed and the boulders further dragged on log platforms or round stones up to this peak where you stand.

You can see the Inca trails where the workers pulled. When they got to the river these engineers knew to dam it to create a dry crossing.

You see also how the Inca made their structures relatively earthquake proof--- both by creating irregular trapezoidal shapes and sometimes adding thin precisely fitted vertical stone implants between boulders that could absorb shocks.

Your fascination with Inca engineering doesn’t end when you return to town. Fast flowing water channels still in use to deliver water to the town date back to the Inca. You can sit in town square and look up again at the ruins you have just visited—with the granaries especially clearly in view.

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