ITINERARY
The pick up from your hotel will be between 06:30am and 07:00am to begin with this new adventure by the Sacred Valley of the Inkas, comprising a great variety of agricultural plots and picturesque villages which contrast perfectly with the sacred mountains and snow peaks around them which are revered since time far before the Inkas.
The Sacred Valley of the Inkas is watered by the river Vilcanota (Sacred River) today known as the Urubamba river, making its lands the more fertile inside the Cusco region. Due to its high fertility level the Inkas decided to settle here and plowed the soil and erected and adapted its buildings into the hill sides by means of using terraces where they could finally grow their produce and also use them as sustaining matter so the soil would not collapse down because they knew what caused landslides and earthquakes in the Andes.
During our tour you will be always accompanied by a professional guide, we will be visiting various many different archaeological centers and villages that have their own varying customs, dances and traditions. The first place to visit will be:
Chinchero: Situated about an hour away from Cusco, here we can see the Inka buildings of what it used to be an old sacred closed compound of which we still can see a perfectly carved Inka wall, in which you can see many niches or hiding places wherein they probably kept their golden idols for their religious ceremonies and rituals. When the Spaniards arrived they constructed the beautiful colonial church of Chinchero above these same walls, dedicating it to the Virgin of Monserrat, a representation of the Virgin Mary and Jesus Child whose wall portrait we can see at the temple entrance.
After visiting this so beautiful place we will continue onto the town of Maras, a picturesque place where you can visit the antique temple of San Francisco. What catches the eye is to see the symbols of the names of the old families that lived there when you watch at the door frames, and they decided to dwell here.
We will continue to Moray; here we will find the circular escalated terraces which did a good job at acclimatization of crops, in which each level of terrace at different altitudes has its own microclimate, which permitted to have many different kinds of produce according to the varying temperatures. The Moray Complex had more than 20 miniature sectors in which they kept their different crops according at the temperature it is adapting itself at its proper level. The visit to Moray will take you about one hour if you want to stroll around all the terraces or levels and in this way firsthand know one of the most incredible places in Peru. Continuing on we will visit the Salt Mines, situated on a high cliff above the Sacred Valley overlooking the river, here we find the “Salineras de Maras”, a fountain of small flow that gives out its salt waters to the many water holes, where these stays still and accumulates, little by little evaporating thanks to the sun shining hot, converting this way the salt waters into Salt, a very characteristic produce in this part of Peru. The use of the waterholes or terraces by the local people is hereditary, but it is worked commonly, the same as the proper product itself…the Salt of Maras.
We will pass by Pacchar to arrive to the second most visited place after Machu Picchu that is Ollantaytambo. The foundation of Ollantaytambo is attributed to the Inka Ollantay, and the military fortress that protected this part of the valley is still standing, strategically situated between two mountain ranges. You can visit actually this fortress, and also the rich compounds consisting of the temple dedicated to Inti (Sun god), the bathing pools of the Ñustas (princesses), the chullpas (tombs) of Cachiccata, a group of symmetrically escalonated terraces and too steep in the side of a hill.
The actual town of Ollantaytambo has many houses built over the basis of the old Inka village, where local native people of ancestral traditions dwell. Ollantaytambo is situated at 97 km (60 miles) away from Cusco at 2,846 m.a.s.l. (on the train station to MAPI). We will follow down the valley by the Urubamba riverside until we arrive to the town of Urubamba where we will have our Buffet lunch in a typical valley restaurant…when we finish eating we will go on with the tour to:
PISAC: A town situated on the slopes of the Intihuatana hill (”place where the sun is tied”), it has the best terrace system done by the Inkas.
The Pisac Archaeological Park is situated near the village, with Inka buildings compounds, carved stone buildings finely assembled, citadel, towers, military fortresses, astronomic observatory, etc.
We will see the biggest cemetery of the Inkas. Finally we will come back to Cusco after taking our postal photo at the Taray Lookout. Return to Cusco at 19:00pm.
We recommend you to have on mind for this day to carry with you:
- Cap or hat for the sun
- Sun Block
- Rain coat/Poncho
- Photo camera or video camera
- Extra money for some purchases
