Places you Should Visit in Cusco

Today we will visit the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Beginning with the town and fortress of Ollantaytambo. You will have the opportunity to visit an ancient Inca city and appreciate the aqueduct system in its streets. Then, meet an original Inca house, where a current family lives in, preserving the intact walls of those times with the decoration of niches in the four walls that make it up. You will also see dozens of rodents running inside the house commonly called ”cuyes” or guinea pigs. Peru is a destination known worldwide for its cuisine and one of the typical dishes in the area of the Andes is prepared with this ”cuy”. Your guide will teach you how this family lives in this place with all its traditions and ancient sacred objects that have come to mix with the Catholic religion.

We will continue the visit with the monumental prehispanic architectural work called ”The Fortress”, here your guide will show you important places like the Temple of the Condor, he will tell you the legend of the origin of the Incas and how is that this temple is related to it. You will also climb an ancient staircase to the most important architectural complex: ”The Temple of the Sun”, a cyclopean work made of pink granite brought from the summits of a chain of mountains located on the other side of Urubamba river. We will tell you the legend of ”Tunupa”, the prehispanic semi-god that is sculpted in a great mountain located next to the current town of Ollantaytambo.

Lunch included.

After lunch, visit Maras saltpans and the farming terraces of Moray. The ancient tradition of extracting salt continues to this day, with more than five thousand pools of salt in use today. Here you will learn the process of extracting salt at three thousand meters high. Continue your visit with the circles or circular terraces of Moray, agricultural-genetic laboratory where experiments took place for the acclimatization of Andean seeds, a sample of the great knowledge of the Incas in the variety of plants and grains of the Andes.

Night in Sacred Valley.

In the morning we will pick you up from the hotel for your transfer to Ollantaytambo train station, where we will take the train to Machu Picchu (Machu Picchu Town, commonly called ”Aguas Calientes”). A unique trip by train surrounded by mountains and accompanied by one of the tributaries of the Amazon River: river ”Urubamba”.

The landscape changes constantly in a journey of one hour and thirty minutes where your guide will show you and teach you about the flora and fauna of the place between the mountain range and the high jungle. He will also show you the Inca roads that lead to the citadel of Machu Picchu and another ten cities that are located along these pedestrian trails called ”Qapaq Ñan” or Royal Road. Through one of the windows of the train we will show you an Inca citadel that seems suspended between the mountains: ”Wiñaywayna”.

Upon arrival, we will board the bus that will leave us at the citadel of Machu Picchu. In only 25 minutes we will ascend more than 400 meters of height by a zig-zag route surrounded by trees and vegetation typical of the high jungle.

Lunch included in the only luxury hotel located at the entrance to the citadel of Machu Picchu.

In the afternoon, tour of the citadel of Machu Picchu. Your expert guide will take you to visit the most important temples and palaces in a three-hour tour. You will go up to the Guardian´s House, the perfect place for a panoramic view of the citadel, recognizing the two great areas of Machu Picchu: the agricultural zone and the urban zone. You will visit the Temple of the Sun, the Sacred Plaza with its three temples, the Intiwatana or solar clock, the Royal Palace, the Sacred Rock, the Mortars and the Temple of the Condor among many other places of interest in this sacred city.

Night in Machu Picchu.

Morning at leisure, you may opt between returning to Machu Picchu, hike Wayna Picchu mountain, hike to the Sungate or to the Inca bridge. Otherwise, take a walk in the picturesque town of Aguas Calientes.

In the afternoon we will take the return train to the city of Cusco. During the return trip, you can enjoy the scenery and relax, or maybe ask yourself and try to explain how people without tools of iron and other precision for engineering works, could build such a gigantic metropolis on the heights of the andes defying gravity to the present …

Our mobility will be waiting for us at Ollantaytambo train station to take us to the city of Cusco.

Night in Cusco.

In the morning we will pick you up for the tour of the city of Cusco. A must visit where you will get to know the polygonal cyclopean construction of Sacsaywaman, place where the Festival of the Sun is celebrated every year or in the language of the Incas the “Inti Raymi”. Then your guide will take you to visit the underground chamber of Q’enqo, a place possibly used by the Incas to perform ceremonies and sacrifices. Continue with the visit to the Cathedral, built over the ancient palace of

King Inca Wiracocha. You will also walk through the ancient streets of Cusco until you reach the famous ”Stone of 12 angles”. Finally, visit the Qoricancha or Temple of the Sun, the Spanish chronicles remind us that from this magnificent temple came a great part of the treasure for the rescue of the Inca Atahualpa.

Night in Cusco.

In the morning we will head to the South Valley, where we will first visit Tipon, a masterpiece of hydraulic engineering that still works today. Its twelve large agricultural terraces give way to microclimates and were strategically built in the middle of the mountains. Then visit a Hispanic church located in a small village typical of the sixteenth century: ”Andahuaylillas” whose beautiful main square is surrounded by Pisonay trees (Erythrina falcata). Decorated with fresco painting that can be seen even in the ceiling of the enclosure, the church is also known as the ”Sistine Chapel of America”. Your guide will indicate where to read a phrase used in the ceremonies of Christian baptisms in five languages. Here is also a masterpiece by the Spanish artist Esteban de Murillo.

Night in Cusco.

At proper time, transfer to Cusco Airport to take your flight to the next destination.

End of our services.