The is a 100-kilometer long valley with the world's most impressive agricultural terraces, authentic villages, and home to countless Inca ruins. The Sacred Valley in is one of the highlights of the Peru travel route.
How to see the Sacred Valley
Now, the Sacred Valley is a beautiful place where one can easily 3-4 days relaxing in the shadow of the Andes mountains. But if you are like me, coming from far away, and mainly focused on Machu Pichhu, then you are likely to just drive through halting at a couple of prominent places. And that's ok too!
Luckily, you can visit the majority of the Sacred Valley in a single day. I'd recommend getting your own driver to drive you from Cusco through the Sacred Valley. It allows a better degree of flexibility. You can book a taxi from your hotel very easily.
A one-day drive through the Sacred Valley usually starts from Cusco, meanders through the valley and eventually ends at Ollayantaytambo.
Along the way you see some incredible sights.
Moray
One of the most phenomenal, and somewhat mind-blowing, things to see in Sacred Valley is Moray - this is the place where the Incas conducted their agricultural experiments.
These are circular terraces at different altitudes that offer changing conditions - such as the light angle and temperature at each level. Because each of the terraces has a unique microclimate, with a range of some 15ºC between the highest and lowest points, it's believed that the Incas used the site to test the growing of different crops and to domesticate and acclimatise crops for use at higher altitudes. This is one of the reasons why Peru, nowadays, has over 2000 species of potatoes!
We hung out a lot in Moray and the surrounding villages talking to the locals and generally just enjoying the sun against our skins.
Had lunch in one of the villages near Moray and took a lot of photos and videos with the locals there.
There was a severe language problem. They only speak Spanish and their local language (Quechua), but we still managed to do some basic communication. And it did not stop me from having the most enjoyable lunch ever!
Now, I am a very picky eater, and I rarely enjoy those tours where you go to someone's house and eat their local food. For one, it is awkward for me (as an introvert) to go into some stranger's house and make small talk. Also, the anxiety over the food - what if I don't like it? How do I stay polite when my delicate tummy starts to protest at the food in front of me?
Thankfully Peruvians are not like us Indians (who like to force more food on the plate in the name of hospitality). They brought in bowls full of food (all vegetarian to cater to my taste) - hearty soups, rice with vegetables - all with minimal spice and maximum taste.
The vegetables in Peru are generally wonderful - very fresh, and organic farming is a regular practice in the rural areas. So, the food naturally tastes delicious. I loved my thick potato soup, and rice with corn and vegetables. In fact, I was so hungry and tempted by the food that I didn't even pause to take a quick photo!
Ollayantaytambo
After Moray, we got back into the car to continue the rest of the tour. Unfortunately, our car broke down along the way, and we wasted a lot of time waiting for a spare vehicle. This is the reason why I couldn't visit this amazing place - the salt mines of Maras.
Instead, we waited along the side of the road for someone to pick us up and bring us to Ollayantaytambo. Here, we spent a couple of hours happily exploring the Inca ruins and roaming the local market before heading off to our hotel for some rest. For more about Ollayantaytambo, check out this blog post.
The next day was going to be Machu Picchu - which required an early start and was going to be a pretty strenuous day. We were happy to put up our feet in our hotel rooms and call it an early night!
By now, my jetlag was also starting to hit. And I never even bothered about dinner, just hit the bed as soon as I could!
All in all, the Sacred Valley was an unforgettable experience. It was a great build up to the highlight of the trip - Machu Picchu.
