Wednesday 4 April - Cuzco to the Ollantaytambo, in the Sacred Valley, Peru

First thing this morning was to pack what we'd need for the next few days, encompassing the Sacred Valley tonight, the 45km-long Inca Trail between Thursday and Saturday, and the trek back to Cuzco on Sunday. Thus, what we left behind at our hostel in Cuzco we wouldn't see until we returned there on Monday. We're allowed a day pack, which we carry from this morning until Sunday, and a larger bag, max 7 kg heavy, which we wouldn't see until our first night on the Trail, and is to be carried by our porters between now and Sunday and will only be accessable every night.

After that, we jumped in a taxi for the spectacular ride to Ollantaytambo, with a half hour stop in Chinchero, to witness the production of the magnificent textiles and garments which we had seen throughout Cuzco and Lima. These items were certainly too high in quality to be on sale at Smithtex. Alpaca (no relation to Kerry Packer) and sheep wool were used for the items. The women producing this stuff had been at the game since they were kids, and had the method of turning the fleece into wool strands, dyeing and weaving down pat.

Getting to our final destination was fun - the taxi's fuel metre was below the E all trip, however the driver did stop twice to put in one solas (equivalent to approx 33c US) of petrol - this got him about one gallon, or 4.5 litres each time.

Ollantaytambo is much like Cuzco in its architechture, although is a heap smaller, being only a small country town whose economy clearly depends on the tourist $$$. It has all cobblestone streets, and a small mall around which the town is structured.

The Sacred Valley is awesome, being surrounded to huge, steep mountains, which words cannot describe how magnificent they are. I'd actually go to the extent and say that the Sacred Valley is nearly as good as Melbourne's sacred valley - Moonee Valley (racecourse).

The runs have arrived overnight, which is common in this country, arriving quicker than Matt Hayden's runs at the World Cup. I've spent the day doing more spraypainting than Yappa (I know that sounds gross, but I hadn´t dropped David's name yet, so I had to put it in here. Sorry to include your name in such a poor topic Yappa - I owe you a frothy at our next wingding).

What with the headaches, runs and malaria protection, some would say I'm taking more pills than a certain ex-Eagles captain (I wouldn´t say that though).

Ollantaytambo is dominated by the huge Inca Complex, a huge stone fortress built into the side of a nearby hill. It has hundreds of paths, mostly complete stone and many which head up the hill at a steep angle. This fortress was one of the few places were the Incas were able to defend themselves from the Spanish conquistadors in the 16th century, and you could clearly see why. It would have been akin to the Anzacs fighting the Turks at Gallipoli in WWII - it would have been nearly impossible, much like chasing a 300+ total against the Aussie cricket team (actually, scrap that last one...).

Again the words can't do it justice, so I'll let the pictures of the Complex speak. However, if I put up all the pictures that were worthy of blogging, the reader would be here for ages. And given that Dad's got to keep Goodway Printing ticking over, and Luke Williams needs to find us the next 'Bunnings', I won't do that.

(Bunnings is my nickname for Joel Selwood, because Bunnings sell wood. Someone has probably thought of it down the club already)