Sept 9 - Our tour group is staying at the private and luxurious Inkaterra Hacienda Urubamba Hotel in the sacred valley. This hotel sits inside a secure gated community that operates almost like its own country (we need to show our passports to enter). This community also has a local population (mostly from the U.S. and other countries) and maintains its own schools, farms and local police force. There seems to be significantly more wealth here as compared to the local towns, but we don't learn much more, and only interact with the other guests at the hotel (in fact we're instructed not to leave the immediate hotel grounds without official escort). We enjoy luxury breakfasts and dinners during our stay here, along with this view of the main building from the deck of the private rooms higher on the hillside. The staff drives us around the hilly grounds in electric golf carts.

Today we travel to the town of Ollantaytambo to visit the amazing Temple of the Sun ('Inti' Temple). This was obviously an extremely important site of great significance for the Inca -- built with an almost unimaginable number of stones, all perfectly fitted together.

The higher areas of the temple complex (probably considered more important) have the highest quality of stonework. Stones are so perfectly fitted together you can't even slip a sheet of paper between the joints.