The Sacred Valley of the Incas – a Haven for People from all walks of life

One of the things I love about being in the Sacred Valley of the Incas is visiting the friends we have here. My husband, Nando (aka Normalito), came to Cusco and the Sacred Valley when he was a teenager and spent many years here. Some of the friends he met here still live in the Valley and others have left, but come back when they can to visit. Most of his friends live an alternative lifestyle – some more alternative than others.

Carlin, Nico, Nando, and Alex in the Plaza of Pisac

In Pisac, we stayed at the hostal of a friend – Nico, who Nando knows from the days when they sold handmade artesania together in Miraflores, Lima in the early 1980s. Nico spent many years in the Valley before marrying a Norwegian woman, Turi, and traveling abroad.

On Saturday, all of the hostal guests pitched in and we had an amazing parrillada – where we roasted marinated meat and chicken on a grill on the roof of the Hostal Puma Orca. The roof of the hostal provides a spectacular view of the Andes, and Nico has plans to put a café up on the roof. After stuffing ourselves, we enjoyed music, as many of the hostal guests are musicians.

Improvised parillada

I woke up early Sunday morning to take an early-morning walk up to the ruins of Pisac. The ruins are on top of a hill, and walking up the ruins is a great way to get some cardio in while enjoying the early-morning silence and mysticism of the Pisac ruins and surrounding mountains.

Pisac ruins - andenes - at dawn

When I came down from the ruins, it was 7:30am, and there was lots of movement in the Plaza, as the various vendors prepared their stalls for Sunday’s market day. I walked back to our hotel, and Nando, Raymi, Alex, and I went back to the market where I bought avocados. We then walked to the traditional bakery, where we bought Andean bread for breakfast, fresh out of the oven. We then walked over to Chilhuanco, a neighborhood just next to Pisac where our friend, Otorongo, lives with his wife, Diana, and their two children.

Traditional panaderia in Pisac

Otorongo purchased this hillside land 15 years ago, and slowly, over the years, has made it habitable by clearing and flattening the land, and building structures on it. Otorongo makes his living selling stones and handmade items in a small store near the plaza of Pisac. We had breakfast by their traditional adobe stove, where they boiled coffee and eggs. After breakfast, Otorongo showed us around the two-story house he has built, as well as his temple, where he sometimes does ayahusacar and San Pedro ceremonies. In Peru, these hallucinogenic and medicinal plants are legal. Ayahuascar contains DMT, and San Pedro, mescaline. People come from all over the world to Peru to try these plants and to do spiritual cleanings.

Otorongo's son, Prem, at their house in Chilhuanco

Raymi - in the fields between Pisac and Chilhuanco

After breakfast, we went back to the hostal again. This time, we took a short cut across the fields. These fields just outside of Pisac will likely remain cornfields, despite rapid growth here. The reason is that these fields are historic, as they have the traditional Andean andenes – agricultural terraces made with stone walls built on hills to support flattened land. These andenes and cornfields are between Otorongo’s house in Chilhuanco and the Hostal Puma Orca. The absence of buildings here also preserves the view of the Andes mountains from the Hostal Puma Orca.

When we got back to the hotel, we got our other two daughters – Tatiana and Soraya – and drove 30 minutes down the road to Calca, where our friend Doris lives with her partner, Jose. Doris is renting a beautiful house in Calca. There is a river that runs behind the house and my daughters had a blast playing in the river – jumping from stone to stone. Doris has revived the garden, and it has plenty of colorful flowers. The best thing about this house, though, is that it has mountain views on all four sides. You can see the mountains while sitting next to the river. You can see them from the flower garden. And, you can see them from the outdoor table where we enjoyed lunch.

Raymi, Soraya, and Tatiana crossing the river behind Doris's house

Doris, in her garden in Calca

Doris and Jose also make a living by working with healing plants as well as drying and selling dried organic fruits. It is refreshing to listen to them, as people who live their life with purpose and who believe in what they do.

Our lunch was scrumptious. I made tallarin verde – Peruvian-style pesto, and Doris made an omelet with wild oyster mushrooms and greens. Jose steamed broccoli and green beans, and Doris made a salad. While traveling in Peru, it is sometimes difficult to get enough vegetables, so we were all glad to have plenty of greens.

After lunch, we relaxed some more by the river, and then built a campfire by the river. My daughters love campfires, and stayed keeping the fire alive for a couple of hours. By that time, we were tired, and ready to return to Pisac. Doris invited us to come spend the night, so we returned the next day.

When we returned to Doris’s house, we went up the street to visit more friends – Maria Estela and Jimbo – who make beautiful ceramics. They have created a small business called Artes Wamani.  One of the things they make are udus – ceramic percussion instruments that make a fascinating, echoing sound when played. I was very tempted to buy some ceramics from them, but decided to wait and place an order when I return to the United States, as we are traveling light.

We also met many other characters at Maria Estela and Jimbo’s house, including a French guy who left France a decade ago and purchased land in the Peruvian jungle, where he created a Rainbow community and a gringa who was dressed in full traditional Andean gear – a pollera, a traditional poncho, and even the rubber shoes that indigenous women tend to wear here. People from all walks of life are attracted to the Valley because of its energy, clean air, tranquility, mountains, rivers, streams, and lakes.