Horseback Riding In The Sacred Valley

One of the things I was most excited about doing in Peru was going horseback riding through the Sacred Valley. Because this was a must-do for me, I made sure to arrange everything in advance. I assumed we would be part of  a larger group, but Dan and I actually had a private tour with Valencia Travel.

We did the half-day tour from Cusco that takes you to four Incan ruins: Qenko, Puca Pucara, Tambomachay, and Sacsayhuaman. The price of admission to the sites was not included in the tour. We purchased the tourist ticket for Cusco which allowed us entry into 16 sites, including Maras which we saw the day before. It's not cheap, but it is worth it. You can buy the ticket at any entry site.

The day started off on such a funny foot. The tour director asked me, in English, how comfortable with horses I am and how well I speak Spanish. I told him that I had been around horses before but only as a tourist or summer camper, and that my Spanish is OK, but not fluent. He immediately turns to our horse wrangler and says, in Spanish, "she's fluent and very comfortable around horses." Umm...not quite what I said! It led to hilarious interactions between us and our non-English-speaking wrangler who took us galloping through the fields! Thankfully it all worked out well and we had an amazing time.

The way the tour works is you ride from site to site, and at each site are met by your English-speaking guide who will show you around the ruins. Our guide happened to be 

Quechuan, or an indigenous person. Just like when we went to Egypt and had a Coptic Christian as a tour guide or in Jordan when we toured with a Bedouin, I always find it interesting to hear a minority view of the culture and society. We were especially lucky in this case because he could tell us more of the meaning behind the ruins and how the Incan culture and traditions continue to this day.

Very interestingly, I kept trying to speak to him in Spanish, but he kept switching back to English. I finally asked him which language he prefers. He told me he preferred English because "Spanish is the language of my oppressors." Wow! That was a new one. I had no idea that in Peru, the Quechuan people along with other indigenous tribes were persecuted and not allowed to practice their customs and languages. It is only recently, he said, that the Peruvian government realized that a lot of tourists are interested in native cultures and are starting to use that as a selling point. It was an eye-opening conversation for sure.

We also visited an alpaca and llama farm. I mean, come on. Look at these cuties!

The ruins were great and the riding was exceptional. I was worried that the ruins would be a bit of  a let-down after Machu Picchu, but they are so different and gave me an even deeper appreciation of how sophisticated this society was.

See our other stops in Peru:
Itinerary
Lima in Two Days
Getting to the Sacred Valley
Machu Picchu
Maras and Moray
Cusco and Pisac