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Cusco Sightseeing

Cusco city tour and outlying Inca sites.

An extended tour of Cuzco and the Inca Sights nearby. You will be accompanied by a private qualified English speaking guide and driver.

We start the tour at the Inca ruins of Tambomachay. This was an Inca sanctuary dedicated to the cult of water, and it was reserved for Inca Royalty. Consisting of a group of walls that are united by stairs, there are springs that cascade to a pool through several channels. The waterfalls in these ruins form part of a terrace to the second wall where the drainage cascades on the first and forms a small pool.

The window sills, hole or niches are 2m height, and was where, according to historians, that the Inca and the most important people of his court offered water rites to the god Inti (sun). It is located 8 km from the Main Square.

We then proceed on to visit Puca Pucara (Quechua for red fortress). This is an Inca archaeological site located on the peak of a hill and is thought to be a military position and an administrative centre. Due to its proximity to Tambomachay, it is believed to have had a relationship with its defense, as well as the control of the route to Calca that led to the Antisuyo (Forest County of the Inca).

It is a fortification formed by platforms, stairs, passages, turrets, windowsills, and a wall that defends the whole construction in one circular shape. It is 7 km from Cuzco main square. We proceed on to visit Qenko; a sanctuary dedicated to the adoration of animals, and consists of ruins formed by rocks with stairs in a zigzag, and a main building similar to a circular amphitheatre where 19 window sills are located as a way of seats.

It is presumed that this place was a site of adoration, and supporting this presumption is the presence of an enormous stone block of 5.9m height that resembles the appearance of a puma. There is a labyrinthine entrance to several underground galleries, passages, channels and stairs with signs of an earlier culture. These reveal themselves in a series of drawings and engravings including outstanding figures of pumas. We then proceed on to one of the most important Inca sites in South America, the enormous fortress of Sacsayhuamán. Its Quechua name means "satisfied falcon", as it was the falcon that guarded the capital of the empire.

Cuzco was designed in the shape of a lying puma with Sacsayhuamán as its head, and the Coricancha (or Sun Temple) would correspond to the feline's genitalia.

Its construction took over seven decades and required the work of approximately 20,000 men, both for the foundations and hewn stone works, the transportation of materials, carving and stone setting. Hewn stones could have been located at Muina, Huacoto and Rumicolca, 20 kilometers away from Cuzco, and at closer places such as Sallu, Rumi, Chita, Curovilca and Viracocha. Some of its external walls exceed 9 meters in height and 350 tons of weight.

Cathedral - Cuzco

We will next visit Cuzco Cathedral which is one of the finest Colonial Cathedrals in the Americas.  Building started in 1560 and was completed in 1664.  The design is constituted by a Latin - Cross base, the facade has a Renaissance style, very ornamental, and it contains the best work of colonial goldsmiths and wood carvings, as well as a valuable collection of canvases from the Escuela Cusqueña (Academy of Cuzco). There are two auxiliary chapels on its both sides: Capilla Del Triunfo and Jesus and Maria y Jose.

Full day tour of the Sacred Valley.

Buffet Lunch is included in your tour today.

A vital Inca road once snaked its way up the canyon that enters the Urubamba Valley at Pisac. The citadel, at the entrance to this gorge, now in ruins, controlled a route which connected the Inca Empire with Paucartambo, on the border of the eastern jungle. Patch-worked by patterned fields and rimmed by vast terracing, the panoramas are magnificent.

The tour visits the market town of Pisac. Pisac is a great place to buy local artifacts. There is a big artisans market here every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday and many of the local craftsmen come in from the surrounding hills to sell their goods.

Finally we proceed onto Ollantaytambo which is an attractive little town located at the western end of the Sacred Valley (about two and a half hours by bus from Cusco). The town has been built on top of original Inca foundations and is the best surviving example of Inca town planning. The town is divided in canchas (blocks) which are almost entirely intact. Each cancha has only one entrance (usually a huge stone doorway) which leads into a central courtyard. The houses surround the courtyard. Good examples of this construction can be found behind the main plaza.

The town is located at the foot of some spectacular Inca ruins which protected the strategic entrance to the lower Urubamba Valley. The temple area is at the top of steep terracing which helped to provide excellent defenses. Stone used for these buildings was brought from a quarry high up on the opposite side of the Urubamba River - an incredible feat involving the efforts of thousands of workers. The complex was still under construction at the time of the conquest and was never completed.

After Manco Inca was defeated by the Spanish at Sacsayhuamán following the unsuccessful siege of Cusco (1536) he retreated to Ollantaytambo. Francisco Pizarro's younger brother Hernando led a force of 70 cavalry, 30 foot soldiers and a large contingent of natives to capture Manco Inca. The Inca's forces, joined by neighboring jungle tribes, rained down showers of arrows, spears and rocks upon the unfortunate Spanish troops. In an intelligent move the Inca's flooded the plains below their stronghold making it difficult for the horses to maneuver. Hernando, uncharacteristically, ordered a hasty retreat. Ollantaytambo became the only place ever to have resisted attacks from the Spanish.

However, their victory was short-lived when the Spanish returned with four times their previous force. Manco Inca retreated to his jungle stronghold in Vilcabamba and Ollantaytambo fell into the hands of the Spanish.

The tour then returns you to your Hotel.

Private Tour to Chinchero.

A private tour with your guide to the Sacred Valley visiting the village of Chinchero, the archeological site of Moray, the town of Maras and the "salineras" or salt mines.

Drive through stunning countryside, against a backdrop of the snow-capped Andes to Chinchero, 28km from Cusco. Chinchero is an attractive Indian village with a colourful Sunday market. The central square has a splendid Inca wall on its western side, etched with 10 trapezoidal niches, each large enough to hold a human being. Also on the square, sitting on its upper level, is the town's colonial church, built of adobe and decorated internally with beautiful floral designs.

Moray, an Inca site, was an experimental agricultural centre. It comprises numerous terraces carved into a large, natural amphitheatre, each one with a different microclimate from those above and below.

We travel on dirt roads and single tracks, passing through small villages with fantastic views of the valley and Andes. Towards the end of the day you will visit to the salt mines of Salineras, before heading back to your hotel for the evening.