The Sacred Valley of the Incas

The Sacred Valley is a standard day tour from Cusco of some of nearby Inca sites and local markets. Our guide was pretty hopeless and uninterested in the day or times and places to meet but we had a lovely day all the same.  As with the visit to Machu Picchu, the scenery was fantastic - mountains and steep sided valleys with great farm land in the bottom and snow-capped peaks in the distance.

The amount of alpaca clothing and beautifully woven rugs and blankets were quite something.  Gifts were purchased and the odd irresistible item for ourselves. 

Walking around the Inca ruins was lovely, if a little crowded at times with guides waving umbrellas and trying to gather their groups.

It was a long day - we were still going as night fell, visiting a village and a demonstration of the weaving process, from alpaca wool to a finished cloth.  It really made us appreciate the amount of work and skill involved, if only we had bigger bags and stronger backs we could have bought a lot of beautiful goodies.