Ollantaytambo

My friend Elly and I took a taxi van to the town she's been living in for the past 6 months called Ollantaytambo. She took me up the mountain to check out some Incan ruins and get a view of the town from above and then gave me a short tour. It is a beautiful town in the valley near Machu Picchu with Incan ruins all around, but it's full of tourists going to and from Machu Picchu so it would be tough to live there, but it was nice to visit.

These large stones are original Incan stonework. It's amazing how they got the rocks to be square-shaped and to fit together and that they're still standing strong! They build their doorways slightly tilted back and slightly tilted in at the top so that when there were earthquakes they wouldn't crumble...geniuses.

 

Elly's humble home

There was a hostel there called Chaska Wasi which means house of stars in Quechua, the native language of the people in Peru. Pretty cool :)