Pisac is another Incan site in the Sacred Valley about 35 km or just over an hour from Cusco. We walked to the bus station that is only for Pisac or towns along that route. The way it works is that you show up, see the man yelling "Pisac, Pisac, Pisac!!", nod yes, get in the bus, and when it is full, it leaves. In our case this process took less than one minute. The entire ride there for four cost 12 soles or four US dollars. It was an interesting ride full of locals and stops. The seats were comfortable and I was expecting far worse in terms of comfort and odors.

We arrived at the base of the town of Pisac and were greeted by the usual taxi trolls. We declined and went to the town's main square. There were over 100 stalls selling typical tourist trinkets. There were more locals requesting your presence at lunch in their restaurant or wanting you to purchase their artwork.

The path to walk up to the ruins is behind the square and takes over an hour to hike. The road up for taxis has a lot of switch backs and takes about 20 minutes. It also costs about 15 dollars. So we turned around and headed back toward the taxi dudes.

Base of town, many Incan towns still have these ducts that carry water throughout

markets and stairs to hike up in background

Pisac (pisaca) means partridge so the layout of this city is supposed to resemble a bird (whereas Cusco's shape is that of a puma). No one seems to know the exact function of Pisac, but they say it had all types of architecture-agricultural, hydraulic, military, residential and religious. The stand out feature for these ruins are the terraces. There are about 500 and were used for growing corn, potatoes and quinoa from bottom to top.

The sites and residences we explored beyond the terraces.

More views of terraces from the other side of the entrance

We walked all through the extensive residential areas. There were tons of stairs, so we definitely got our exercise even without the lengthy hike up. One still has to marvel at how these 'cities' were built at such heights on hills.