Our first stop of the day was visiting one of the small towns of Peru – Ollantaytambo and the ruins filled with terraces. The Incans carried huge boulders or rocks from the mountain on the other side of the river to their site here, back in the day. The only way they were able to carry them up was to slide them up the mountain with large ropes.
Stairway to Heaven
After our visit to the ruins, we continued touring around the little town, looking down alleys and seeing the main square. From here we had an option: Either hike in the flat valley to the lunch campground or hike around a mountain to make our way to the Stairway of Heaven. Well, the Campbell Clan loves being active, and active in the wrong hiking gear. Today we had thought we would only be touring the town, so we all wore jeans, converse-type shoes, and a somewhat fashionable shirt. Wrong. What were we thinking??
This was one of the steepest and sweatiest hikes we had done – with rocks. Our feet were killing us, our jeans didn?t help the sweat situation, and we just looked like plain ole idiots. At least hiking up the hill was worth being extremely out of breath.
Once we reached the Stairway to Heaven (which we went down, which is kind of an oxymoron if you ask me), it seemed easy-peasy. No, no, no. These stairs are falling apart, steeper and thinner than anything I have seen. Then a bee came. And I almost pushed mom down the stairs! I also took a pause on one of the stairs and looked to my right where a huge cow resided. He just stared. And stared some more, and then looked like he would just charge at me if he wasn’t tied up so I just waved and kept on walking before that turned bad. He was a cute cow, just with an evil stare.
Small Towns of Peru: The Town of Huilloc
After we made it down and ate lunch in our usual tent, we hopped in the van to take us to the little town of Huilloc in the countryside. This is one of the must-visit small towns of Peru when you are there!
Visiting Homes in Huilloc
We visited a woman’s house to watch her weave her own textiles and also had the opportunity to see her young daughter creating a bracelet.
While we watched, we learned a fun fact: A couple lives together for three years of training before marriage to make sure they are compatible. We toured around their kitchen, which looks nothing like American kitchens. There are clay walls, a stove and oven, and a storage bench, which protected their guinea pigs and held their harvested potatoes, since that is one of the only grown vegetable in their town.
Waiting outside of her house, the women had set up a little market showing off all of their hand-woven textiles for us. If we liked one, we had to hold it up. Then, they would run over and tell us the price.
All of the women lined up on the side with their children. The colors are extraordinary and the feeling of seeing their faces light up when someone chooses their piece is irreplaceable.
Before we left the town, we handed out bananas, bread, and apples to the local children. Since they can only harvest potatoes, those normal foods to us are like heaven to them. They’re sneaky children, though. While handing out the food, they would slyly put it under their colorful ponchos to trick us into thinking they hadn’t gotten anything yet. After giving a little boy a piece of bread, I turned back around to him and saw him holding up 4 pieces. They’re smart, I give them that.
On our way down the mountain, we brought a local child, Max, down to his fields to grab his cows and herd them back to his house.
Buying Ceramics & Eating Dinner in the Small Towns of Peru
Anyways, we arrived at Ceramicas Seminario and met Pablo Seminario, the artist who had started the ceramic designs. I got a little carried away buying little coffee mugs and espresso glasses.
Our day only became more interesting. For dinner we ate at a descendant of Ponce de Leon’s house. The amount of art that he has collected is worth well over half a billion dollars, creating his own little museum. However, he did have some items stolen in a burglary back in the 1990s.
Visiting these small towns of Peru give you a completely different experience from the other locations.