On a morning with blue sky and sun, Walter, Edwin and I left the city of Cusco for the magical town of Pisac. Everything there seems retained in time. The different colors of the people’s dress along with the archeological park gave us an ancestral vibe.
For us city people it is gratifying to make a trek to Pisac, since it is the point of departure for knowing and enjoying the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Through this great agricultural valley flows the Vilcanota River that reflects the milky-way at night.
Along the way to Pisac from Cusco you can enjoy beautiful natural scenery, small rivers, lakes, imposing mountains, and small towns. There, people dedicate themselves to agriculture and animal husbandry.
You have to drop down from Cusco to reach the base of the mountains in the Valley, in order to reach Pisac. At the entrance to the town you will see a colorful statue of a Varayoc, an indigenous leader, with his poncho, his chullo (cap), his sandals (ojotas), and his bar giving you a welcome with his open arms.
The narrow and well-decorated streets made us feel like we were in a magical and mysterious place. People’s joy, each with a role in their society, gives us a welcome to this beautiful town.
Strolling through its fair and street is to fill your eyes with color and art. The plaza filled with handicrafts is one of the attractions for visitors. Of course, the majority of the people come to Pisac to see the archeological park.The people of the town will tell you about what happens and what happened every day.
In Pisac you can still see adobe houses and their colonial balconies of blue color. On some walls and doors you will see the figures of the chacana, the stars, and the three animals of the Andean trilogy, the condor, the puma, and the serpent. The majority of the roofs are of ceramic tile.
In the narrow streets around the plaza you will find travel agencies, restaurants, handicraft stores, hostals, chicherías, and agencies which perform ayahuasca and san pedro ceremonies.
We arrived thirsty from the heat and found a chichería on Grau Street. There, the drink still has a natural corn flavor with no additional alcohol, naturally fermented. The casera, vendor, of the place served us three caporales (big glasses) filled with chicha. Up till that moment we had not drunk anything to slake our thirst. We tried bottles of water but that did not work. The chicha was perfect.
