curious12

I will be leaving for Peru in a few short weeks. My friend and I are planning to visit the Pisac market on Sunday morning and would also like to visit the Ollantaytambo ruins in the afternoon. We were planning on negotiating for a taxi from the main square in Cusco to Pisac however, I was uncertain what our transportation options would be once we got to Pisac. My friend and I don't want to necessarily take a formal tour as we wanted to be on our own schedule, however, I also don't want to take a taxi to Pisac and then have no way of getting from Pisac to Ollantaytambo. Are there ready available taxis that we can take from Pisac to Ollantaytambo and then from Ollantaytambo back to Cusco?? And is this a realistic option to do??

Any input is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

crellston

Your best bet is to find a taxi driver in Cusco who speaks reasonable English and hire him for the day. Negotiate hard on the price and get him to write it down! (Scams abound!). Your hotel will be able to arrange this for you but expect to pay a hefty premium over arranging direct. Get the driver to pick you up early from your hotel and you will have plenty of time to see lots of other places in the SV - e.g Chinchero, Moray etc.
In Pisac your best bet after the market, would be to get your driver to drop you off at the top car park above the ruins and spend a couple of hours walking down through the ruins where he can pick you up to the bottom car park. Here is a link to our blog with photos and more detail (including the aforementioned scam!)

http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog...ai/1/tpod.html

entries 57 & 60 are cover this area

Another, cheaper alternative, as long as you are happy travelling on local buses is to get a bus from Cusco to Pisac and again to Olly (via Urumbamba) it is reasonably straight forward and buses are regular and leave when full (and I do mean full!!). This would obviously be cheaper and arguably more fun but you would miss out on some of the other sights in the SV.

curious12

Thank you so much for the helpful info! I'm getting pretty excited for my trip. Do you have any ballpark range of what a good negotiated taxi rate would be for the day?

crellston

No problem curious. When we were stayed in Urumbamba and Olly for a few weeks I think we were paying around 40-60 soles for a one way trip from Olly to Cusco. We were there quite a while and so became adept at negotiating a good deal. The fare will be dependent on the time of day and whether the driver can pick up a return fare (i.e. mornings tend to be cheaper than pm and Sundays will be more expensive than other days because everyone wants to go to to see the market.
Make sure you stress that you are hiring the whole car and do not let them stop and pick up other passengers along the way (on a few rare occasions this has been known to lead to robberies).

barefootbeach

Or, you can book a driver/guide like Percy Solas....that will cost you more but he can take you to additional places and provide good commentary. He drives safely and speaks good English. If you search for him on this site, you should be able to find his contact informatoin.

curious12

Hi barefoot - I contacted Percy and unfortunately he is already booked for the day that my friend and I need. I sent an email out to another driver that was recommended on the boards but am waiting to hear back. I am leaving in a few short days and was wonderig whether anyone had any other recommendations for drivers?

barefootbeach

curious12,
The other guide that people highly recommended was a David...but I don't remember his last name. If you search trip reports from about a year ago, you'll find references to him.

Percy also could recommend someone for you.