Today was a free day in our itinerary to explore Ollantaytambo on our own. Our ten-day combo pass to 16 popular sites in the Cusco region was about to expire, and we put it to good use at the large Inca site that looms just above the town. (Actually the whole town is technically one big Inca site because the buildings are all built on the old stone foundations. You can see the handiwork everywhere if you look carefully – the streets all have running water passing through them in ancient stone channels, cleverly diverted from the main stream above town and then distributed in a series of branches all powered by gravity.)

Ollantaytambo sits at the junction point of three significant valleys, and there are traces of stonework (mostly terraces) on the mountain slopes all around. The most significant of these are the foundations of the Sun Temple, destroyed (as usual) by the Spaniards but still impressive for the massive stones cunningly fit together. Further cut and shaped pieces lie scattered about nearby, and one imagines how impressive the whole thing must have been in its heyday.

We spent quite some time scrambling about the ruins, climbing up to a high watchpost with sweeping views. For some reason the building there features outward-facing niches, so we could not resist a little monkey business.

After exploring the official pay-to-see-’em ruins we crossed the valley to the opposite slope where more structures awaited. These were mostly agricultural storage and the like, and being considered less culturally significant they are left open to visit at will. Nevertheless they offer a spectacular vantage point for photos of the main site across the valley.

Having packed a lot of activity into the morning, we took a late lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the hotel with books and Scrabble. Our hotel is right at the railroad station, but feels like it is in a walled garden, with generous balconies and views of the mountains. Plus it has its own organic farm nearby!