Semana Santa, Day 4: Part II

Sacred Valley, A guided adventure in 4 parts
Pisac Market and Pisac Ruins


One of the reasons the town of Pisac is so well known is its local market. (Even featured in this year’s season of the The Amazing Race!) It is open three days a week, Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday. Sunday is known to be the most traditional day because it is when people wear traditional dress, their Sunday best, not for the benefit of tourists but because of their own tradition. Also, on Sundays when mass lets out in the town square at 11:00 the entire congregation leaves the church in a colorful procession led by the mayor of Pisac. We had read, seen pictures, and heard from friends about how amazing this market was. We couldn’t wait to see it.

Our bus pulls over in the parking lot and we are told we can get off to look around, but be back in 15 minutes! Shocked, we run off the bus at full speed. We had come with the idea of buying some specific things and getting great pictures. Instead we find ourselves in our own Amazing Race. We opt for shopping. We see a woman selling traditional Peruvian tapestries, top on our shopping list. We start the polite chit chat, then the bargaining begins. As Heather haggles, Sean tries to ward off pick pockets and snap a few pictures at the same time. We leave with 5 beautiful tapestries, wallets intact, and about 30 seconds to spare to get back to the bus. We never even made it to the main square! Before frustration and disappointment can take time to settle in we are off for the ruins. We make a mental note about tour groups; you can pack a lot in, but what are you missing while you are rushing between sights?

The Pisac ruins sit high on the hillside above the town of Pisac. Again, like at Sacsaywaman, the rocks that built the huge Incan complex of Pisac were dismantled by the conquering Spaniards to build the Spanish city below in the more sensible area of the valley floor. But the amount of ruins that remain are amazing and much larger than we expect. Again on the tour we can only see a small part of the ruins - we could take a day or two exploring. We head off to the religious sector.

We walk along a path that curves along the mountain side. Pan pipe music floats up to us from a young boy sitting on the rock serenading the Apus or mountain gods. Farther in the distance are the ruins of the priests’ dormitories and domestic sector. Then we turn right and head up hill, through the Incan gate to the old city of Pisac. We are now in the remains of the religious sector.

Here there are three well preserved temples. The temple of the sun dominates the area with its Intiwatana stone-or hitching post of the sun. According to Incan tradition the Temple of the Sun would have been completely covered in gold. Next to this temple stands the Temple of the Moon, once covered in silver. Farther on are the ritual baths and fountains.

We try to take a few pictures, cropping out the hundreds of other tourist groups on their Sunday whirl wind tour of Pisac. Hot and sun burnt, we head back to the bus, passing the piper boy walking up the path. We ask to take an up close picture, offer him a small tip, and rush to catch up with our ever moving tour group.