Pearls of Life: Ollantaytambo, my favorite Inca town in the Sacred Valley of Southern Peru.

Carmit enjoying the views in the Sacred Valley of Peru.

Traveling to Ollantaytambo, province of Urubamba, Cusco region, located in the Sacred Valley of Peru.

Ollantaytambo is an Inca city and was the royal estate of the Inca emperor Pachacuti. Ollantaytambo is built from small houses that are a combination of the residual living in the Inca empire with the influence of the Spanish conquering the town. Ollantaytambo is my favorite town in the Sacred Valley. Ollantaytambo is located at the valley entrance to the train to Aguas Caliente to leave to Machu Picchu.

I decided to stay in Ollantaytambo for a few weeks in order to connect to the spirituality of this special region of the Sacred Valley. From Ollantaytambo I was able to take tuk-tuk and local transportation to other little towns in the Sacred Valley, including Pisac. Ollantaytambo is famous for its incredible nature surrounding the town where many hiking trails, including the Inca trail to Machu Picchu are starting.

Hiking in Ollantaytambo and in the area is an adventure. You can explore the ancient Inca ruins and the big park of natural salt in that region as a day trip from Ollantaytambo. From Ollantaytambo to Pisac it takes a 2 hour ride with a local bus with indigenous Peruvian people. Pisac is very known for its proximity to Ollantaytambo and for the spiritual Ayahuasca retreats that people participate in there. In Ollantaytambo, I met people that participated in Ayahuasca retreats and took the time to recover in Ollantaytambo as the town offers many services to the tourists.

The streets in Ollantaytambo are very ancient, where you can see the water from the waterfall streams through the streets in small canals crossing the town. The Inca tribe are living with the native Peruvian and co-mingling in Ollantaytambo. You can find traditional Inca families sitting in the local market in the streets offering a view to their culture and their routine. It is amazing to watch them selling vegetables and fruits that they grow in their own gardens and cheese that they produce from Llamas, Alpacas and cows, which is unique to that region.

Ollantaytambo is a unique city where the natives are welcoming the preservation of the indigenous Inca culture, including spiritual ceremonies and ancient medicine. For more about this, you can read on my other blogs.