Apu Lodge

We’ve arrived in Ollantaytambo, Peru, and we have started working at Apu Lodge. Apu Lodge is a bed and breakfast in Ollanta, as everybody here calls it, about a five-minute walk from the plaza. Ollanta is known as The Living Inca City, because the city was built about seven or eight hundred years ago, and it still is pretty much the same city now as it was then. There are no cars in town, except for entering and leaving from the plaza. The streets themselves are way too narrow for cars. The roads in town were built by the Incas, as were many of the walls and buildings.

Ollantaytambo is actually a small village in the Sacred Valley, and it is at once magnificent and extremely mellow. It is 10,000 feet in elevation, surrounded by peaks. It is mainly known to the outside world as the starting point for hiking to Machu Picchu, or for getting the train there. By train, it’s two hours to Machu Picchu. It is a four-day hike from here.

We will be here until the end of May, working at the lodge. We greet guests and welcome them, help out with breakfast, help arrange tours and taxis, teach English to the staff, go shopping, help keep the place clean and running. It feels great for us to stay in one place for a while and be able to help. It feels great to hear people say Thank you, instead of us always being the ones saying it.

Apu is located at the end of a street. Because no cars can drive here, one of our jobs is to go down to the plaza to meet guests and bring them back, or to help them carry luggage.

The water that’s running alongside the road is the original Inca irrigation canal. The water comes from up high in the mountains. When we need to get a delivery that’s heavy, people use tricycles to carry the load. There are lots of tricycles in town, most of them missing pedals, a lot of them missing seats. Here is Mateo, the guy who delivers gas tanks for heating water, delivering a tank to the lodge.

Monica and I took over the volunteer position at the lodge from two other couples: Gemma and Cesar from Spain, and Deb and Steve from Canada. We had a few days of overlap with them to learn from them, and we had a kind of passing the torch, with a good-bye party.

 

 

Everybody who comes to Ollanta goes to Machu Picchu. Everybody. For a lot of them, it has been a life-long dream to come here. We’ve met people from France, England, Japan, Taiwan, Serbia, Spain, The USA, Argentina, Austalia, Canada, and we’ve just begun. People are happy and excited to be here, and it is a pleasure for us to welcome them and help them, and to get to know them a bit.

Apu Lodge has eight rooms available for rent. We work together with the staff, comprised of Ruth, Francisca, Gregorio, and Carlos, to hopefully keep everything running smoothly.  Monica is everywhere, cleaning the fireplace, washing dishes, arranging flowers. Everybody works together and it is usually fun.

 

Apu means, Spirit of the Mountain. The Incas saw the mountains as living beings. The lodge is located directly underneath Tunupa, whom the Incas carved into the mountain. He is a guy who watches over things in the valley, as well as delivering messages. He is very visible from the plaza, and from almost anywhere in the valley. Perhaps you can see him in the following photo.

As we stay here longer, we are becoming more familiar with the spirits of the mountains. We have plenty of time for excursions and hikes, and we are getting to know the area. The Sacred Valley is a beautiful place.