Ollantaytambo: more ancient Inca ruins, plus an Epiphany carnival – LatAm style.

I hope I haven’t overwhelmed you with the details of our January trip through Latin America – especially since it’s only just the beginning ). But there’s just so much color, so many unusual things, and so much acclimatization needs doing. You need to walk, adapt, and get used to breathing more actively – for there’s not much oxygen up here. Sometimes, during the day, you breathe more rapidly and deeply because your body demands it. But at night, during sleep, your “cruise control” kicks in, and you start breathing in your usual lowland rhythm. As a result, your body starts to suffocate, your brain doesn’t get enough oxygen (this is still while asleep), and you start having nightmares like you’re trapped or being crushed – suffocating to death. You wake up actually gasping for air!

So, what to do? Simple! Sit up and take deep breaths. Breathe deeply for three to five minutes, and then go back to sleep. Main thing: it’s all about gradually acclimatizing to the mountain heights – taking it slow. Which is just what we did…

The next stop for yet more acclimatization plus sightseeing was Ollantaytambo – another ancient Inca city…

This city was significant for the Inca Empire – both as a military fortress and as an economically important site (food storage), and it also played a role in religious practices.

Why military? Because this is the entrance-to-and-exit-from the gorge leading from the mountains down to the lowlands and jungles (somewhere near where the Amazon River begins). Such strategic points need to be controlled by force. Here’s the view of the gorge from the old Inca city:

On the rocky outcrops, with a bit of imagination, you can see the face of a menacing figure:

A bit closer:

We were told that this is the god Viracocha, who actually created… everything. In short, the perfect spot for a fort.

The remains of the old foodstuffs “warehouses” are on the opposite cliff. Wow, the Inca Empire really knew how to balance its economy! ->

Alright, let’s go explore the ruins!…

By the way, if you look at the ruins of Ollantaytambo from the opposite cliff, you can see the outline of a llama! ->

Source

The altitude isn’t that high – only about 2900 meters. But tourists need to stay alert and thoroughly lathered in sunscreen: even on cloudy days you can get badly sunburned, which will be painfully unpleasant later.

Though the map doesn’t show it – many of the paths are closed; apparently some foolish tourists have fallen off the cliffs…

We’re climbing up there:

Our legs are a bit tired today, but it’s not a long climb – just 15 minutes, with plenty of stops for photos and historical-educational insights from tour guide – Vicente.

And it’s so worth it! We climbed up to the old Inca structures from where the views are amazing! The higher you go – the better the scenery…

Up there, you start seeing some really interesting constructions. How did they live, what did they build, what’s survived… For example, some steps:

More walls made of precisely fitted granite or basalt blocks:

How intricately they shaped these stones! Once again, I’ll repeat that they did this without iron tools! They just polished them with hematite stones.

The protrusions on the blocks are technical elements for transporting the stones. Most were later ground down – but some were left:

We marveled again at the precision of the stonework, which fits together like this:

Yes, you can only be amazed by the vigor and fortitude of this empire, and at the level of motivation of the workers to build something like this without any mechanical devices or animal power. Yes – their only domesticated animals were llamas and alpacas, which can’t carry much (maximum load capacity – about 15kg). So all of this was carved, transported, and dragged up the mountain by human muscle power. There was no other way…

Before moving on to the main pictures, here’s a photo from the top of the city:

It’s clear that the budgets here were much smaller. The blocks weren’t as precisely fitted, and the stones were simply held together with clay. The precise stone fitting was reserved for royal palaces and religious temples. For residential or military buildings or storage facilities, simpler methods were used. Which makes sense.

But despite being abandoned for 500+ years, it’s all still standing!

Now, the most interesting part – what did they want to build at the very top? It’s unclear. But they did carry up some gigantic blocks:

From these huge stones, the ancient Incas wanted to build some kind of unimaginable ziggurat:

Something interrupted the work. It’s obvious it was related to the Spanish conquest of South America.

Here are some more interesting artifacts. Since the Andes are a very seismic zone and earthquakes are common here, the Incas reinforced their buildings – especially palaces and temples. We were told that in special cases, they carved cuts in the blocks like these ->

They’d pour some kind of molten alloy into these cuts to bond with the neighboring block. The Spanish thought it was gold and destroyed the structures, but it was most likely just bronze, and this alloy is cheaper and stronger than the “despised metal”.

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Why and how did it happen that the Spanish-Portuguese “discovered” the American continents, and not the other way around? Why didn’t the Aztecs, Mayans, and Incas “discover” Europe? A very good question! A theory as to why can be found in the book Guns, Germs, and Steel (recommended!).

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They’d clearly started building something grand here (probably a temple of the sun), but didn’t finish. Only this part of the wall remains:

They were so precise:

Two observations: 1) The main blocks were fitted together using smaller “spacers”. 2) As we were told, once a year during the sunrise on the solstice, the chakana (Inca cross) in the center of the block casts a shadow. This here “ladder”. Woah! ->

Here’s the structure. I wouldn’t want to be part of its construction ->

Check out these fragments – they were carved from granite! ->

But it’s time to head back down. It’s easier on the emotions down there – and they serve cerveza :)…

We descended, taking a final look at the buildings and terraces:

What else is there here?

A water supply system! Ancient Inca aqueducts ->

They didn’t have lead, tin, or iron. They shaped everything from stone. And they carved this aqueduct out of stone. We could learn a thing or two from these guys!

Despite the short duration of our stay in Ollantaytambo, it wasn’t limited to visiting its Inca ruins. When we were there, the whole of Catholic Latin America was celebrating religious holidays with such fervor that it can only be called a carnival. Groups of colorfully dressed locals were parading almost non-stop to the sound of music through the streets of the city:

Some groups had orchestras:

While others were more about the colorful costumes:

What exactly this all was remained a mystery. But it seemed to be related to the Epiphany, as all these groups were heading toward the local church:

Something was happening inside the church – unclear what exactly, but it definitely had a strong Latin American flavor. You probably wouldn’t see an Epiphany like this anywhere else…

The decorations at the church entrance. They’d decorated it with anything they could get their hands on! ->

The last evening procession was especially lively (yes, they continued early the next morning, but without us), and they were carrying… what’s that thing called? ->

It reminded me of the Kanda Matsuri festival in Tokyo back in 2017…

The main characters of this procession were two strange figures, clearly representing something:

One had a long nose with a rope…

…at the end of which was another figure in a black mask with the head of a bull.

What this was and why – still unclear.

Everyone else in the procession was also wearing various funny masks:

OR joined in the fun →

And a few more photos taken by DZ and OR ->

Back at the hotel, as the sun set, these cute animals were grazing under the windows:

The next morning we had an early start heading out on the Inca Trail. That meant we needed to carefully pack for the next four days of high-altitude trekking and get to bed early. Spoiler: the first part of the trek went well; the second – not very :)…

The best photos from LatAm-2025 are here.