We were initially interested in visiting Pisaq because it is famous for having a splendid Sunday market, where local people travel from communities across the region to trade. After visiting many days in many countries I had certain expectations about what the market itself would be like. I expected to find a fair amount local produce, a few people selling meat, and considering that this was a town frequented by tourists as a side trip for Machu Picchu, a lot of crafts. My expectations about the Pisaq Market itself were true for the most part, but the town, its location, and the mood of the market blew me away. Visiting Pisaq was both an exciting market experience and a time to reflect on life in the High Andes.

Looking down on Cusco from the road to Pisaq	The main road in Pisaq where the shared taxi dropped us off.

We departed for Pisaq from Cusco around 9am and opted to take a shared taxi, which is called “taxi servicio” in Peru. The stop for transit to Pisaq is located near the intersections of XXX and XXX (I need to get the righ street names). We took a taxi from our hotel in San Blas to the taxi servicios for 3 Soles. Once at the taxi stand we quickly found a taxi that was just about full leaving for Pisaq, we jumped right in to take the last two seats and we were off. The taxi itself was a van and it was in very new and very clean, this was a good catch for a service taxi and we enjoyed the rest of the drive to Pisaq, enjoying the views and getting a bit of contemplation time. The drive to Pisaq from Cusco takes about an hour and just like nearly all travel in this region, the road winds around mountains and overlooks deep valleys. The road itself was well paved and smooth.
Trips like this are a journey, and it is easy to get caught up in the activity of getting from here to there and worrying about how the next leg of your trip will pan out so its important to remember that we are not here just to run from one place to another, but to understand where we are, take in our surroundings and hopefully come away with a relationship with the people and places we visit. Taking a deep breath now and then and letting your self be in the moment is more valuable in the long term than any photo, souvenire or bragging right.

The street towards the market from the taxi/bus area.

Pisaq sits at the bottom of a valley surrounded by high mountains that come right down to the edge of town. On the valley floor on either end of the center of town are fields full of grains, which sway back and forth in the wind. The town itself is actually very small and you can walk from one end to the other in less than 10 minutes at a leisurely pace. In fact, only 5 blocks from the town square you will find that the town simply ends and a field begins, it is well work drifting to the edges of the town, admiring the local dwellings and seeing how they merge into the landscape.

I greatly admire the respect for the land here and the ability to preserve the usable land for farming, something people in my own country seem to have a passion for destroying.

Various women at the Pisaq Market

Sunday is the primary market day in Pisaq and the town is a buzz with a mix of locals and tourists, who are largely brought in on tour busses. Luckily the onslaught of tourists hasn’t killed the charm of the place and tourism plays a large role in the economy of the region. The market is broken into separate sections for produce, meat, crafts, etc.. and offers a lot in the way of hand made goods, but it is not necessarily the best place to find the highest quality. We found a great selection of crafts and a lot of unique items that we hadn’t seen in other towns. The sellers in the market were all very friendly and pleasant to talk with. In contrast to markets in the middle east, you can leisurely stroll up and down the corridors, look at different things and enjoy yourself without the constant hassle.

Stalls with various hand made items for sale.

When it comes to buying things during trips I must admit that I am a bit conflicted. On one hand I am constantly telling myself that I don’t need this or don’t need that, or making up a reason why it will just be too hard to get home. Nonetheless, I always come away with about twice as much luggage as I arrive with, partly because I travel with someone who doesn’t listen to my excuses and partly because I know how much I will regret not buying something I want after I get home. These trips also cause me to pause at times and contemplate my privileged position and whether buying these things is a form of exploitation. It’s hard to know for sure, but as long as my money is going directly into the hands of the person who made something as opposed to a tour operator or the owners of a fancy hotel, it seems that my visit and my purchases are doing more good than harm. We sought out the sellers at the ends of the roads and the stalls configured at some of the less attractive locations and felt pretty good about our purchases. With gracious smiles, some friendly small talk and a lot of respect, we purchased a number of items in Pisaq and we hope the people who made these products do benefit from our visit in some way.

Overlooking Pisaq from the café with the mountains in view.

After a few hours of strolling about the market we were ready for a break and took advantage of one of the cafés overlooking the town square. From there we had some tea and took a lot of pictures of the activity below. If you want to be a voyeur, this is a good place to do it. It also offers a great view of the geography surrounding the town center. After our tea I also had a chance to try some of the food served by the vendors around the square. I had a freshly deep fried chile relleno stuffed with corn and some other stuff that I can’t determine, but found extremely delicious. That one chile relleno was the best thing I ate in all of Peru.

Enjoying a chile relleno in the market. It was so gooood!

Leaving Pisaq was more of an adventure than getting there. I assumed that if I went back to where the mini-bus dropped us off we would fine more mini-busses going back the same direction, which this was not the case. Instead I found a lot of tourist taxi’s charging 30 soles to go back to Cusco and when I asked where the Taxi Servicio was, everyone acted like no such service existed. I am not sure if they were just trying to get my business, or if I was simply mis-communicating, either way, there were no service taxis to be found. After finding a place to discuss the options without being hassled by a bus driver or taxi guy we opted to take a local bus back to Cusco.

Shops along the highway between Pisaq and Cusco.

Two things the bus driver told us turned false, but we were still successful at returning to Cusco. First, they said the bus would drop us off at the Plaza de Armas, which is the center of Cusco. Second, they said it was a direct bus. Of course neither of these things were true, the bus dropped us off at a bus station in a part of Cusco nowhere near the Plaza and the bus stopped everywhere along the road where someone flagged it down. This is one of the exciting things about being a traveler rather than a tourist, you never know when an adventure is in store, spending an extra hour on the bus, watching the people get on and off, the amusement of seeing a stack of tires put on the roof, and all the other things that come with taking local transportation made the journey more than a return trip, but an experience all to itself.

By 5pm we were back in Cusco and spent the rest of the evening wandering the streets and using every moment we had until we crashed out in the Hostal Amaru.

Credits
Photos by Azza Basarudin