Cusco Versatile Tour

Description Sacred Valley and Machupicchu Tour

With the “Versatile Cusco” tour, you will know the archaeological centers of the city, the sacred valley, the agricultural laboratories, the potato route and you will crown your view when you see the citadel of Machupicchu. This tour is ideal for those who want an unconventional and different route to Cusco.

QORICANCHA, golden temple. It was a sacred place where the Inca god Inti (Sun) was worshipped, so you could only enter fasting, barefoot and with a load on your back as a sign of humility, as indicated by the Inca high priest: Willaq Umu. SACSAYHUAMÁN, is an Inca ceremonial fortress located 2 kilometers north of the city of Cusco. QÈNQO (Q’inqu or labyrinth, is an archaeological center that at the time of the Inca Empire was another center dedicated to the rite. TAMBOMACHAY or resting place, in an archaeological site that was intended for the worship of water and for the potentate of the Inca Empire could rest.

It consists of a series of aqueducts, canals and several waterfalls that run through the rocks. Here there was also a kind of royal garden, whose irrigation came from a complicated system of canals especially likewise constituted a control area of people coming from the Antisuyo, because there was a control tower.

MORAY, was a center of crop experimentation used by the Incas for the acclimatization of products brought from other areas. Here you can see four concentric circular stone constructions forming a kind of rings that widen as they ascend. Their constructions are supported by strong stone walls; around the main construction you can see platforms that form a kind of ironwork.

THE POTATO is undoubtedly one of the most versatile and popular vegetables thanks to the first explorers, who found it for the first time in the high mountains of the Peruvian Andes. The potato is an edible tuber native to the mountainous regions of the Andes in South America, where the plant has been cultivated for more than 10,000 years, since the time of the Inca Empire. Today, the potato is an international staple food, ranking as the fourth most widely distributed food crop in the world, after corn, wheat and rice.

The potato is the third most important food crop in the world, due to its great nutritional value, diverse medicinal properties and multiple presentations. A new plant can be planted from a piece of potato called seed and this new plant can produce from 5 to 20 new tubers, which will be genetically identical to the mother seed plant.

This tour in Cusco will allow us to recognize and enjoy the production process of the potato, taste it through the kitchen and understand it within historical and cultural expressions and will take place in a rural environment with the participation of organized local populations. In addition, we will visit beautiful lagoons such as Kinsagocha, archaeological ruins such as those of Pucara Pantilliclla, cultivation fields or crops, workshops of handicraft or medicinal plants. Here they also produce soaps, shampoos (own aromatic herbs) and textiles; among them are distinguished those of Chahuatire.

MACHUPICCHU, ancient Andean Inca settlement, located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru, in the Andes mountain range at 2,430 meters above sea level; it is located in the Cusco region, province of Urubamba, district of Machupicchu.

Machu Picchu would have been one of the resting places of Pachacutec, ninth Inca of the Tahuantinsuyo between 1438 and 1470.

It is considered, at the same time, a masterpiece of architecture and engineering. Its peculiar architectural and scenic features and the veil of mystery that has woven around it much of the literature published about the site, have made it one of the most popular tourist destinations on the planet.

Enjoy our Sacred Valley and Machupicchu Tour.

MAIN POINTS OF VISIT

• Tours in Cusco (3,390 masl)
• Cusco Cathedral
• Qoricancha
• Sacsayhuaman (3,700 masl)
• Q`enqo (3,580 masl)
• Puca Pucara (3,580 masl)
• Tambomachay (3,700 masl)
• Maras (3,385 masl)
• Moray (3,385 masl)
• Pisaq (2,972 masl)
• Ollantaytambo (2,792 masl)
• Aguas Calientes (2,040 masl)
• Machupicchu (2,430 masl)

Day 1: Cusco – City Tour

Cusco – Catedral – Qoricancha – Sacsayhuaman – Qenqo – Tambomachay – Cusco.

• At the agreed time transfer from Cusco Airport to the chosen hotel. Accommodation and acclimatization.
• Tour in Cusco: 12.50 – 13.10 hrs, pick up at your hotel. If your hotel is outside the historic center, we will meet you at our office at 13.00 hrs, we will start the tour of Cusco visiting the Cathedral of Cusco and its more than 600 paintings of the Cusco school (40 min).
• 14.10 hrs We will go to Qoricancha on foot seeing beautiful Inca streets (10 min).
• 14.20 hrs We will enter the Qoricancha or House of the Sun, main temple in Inca times where we will learn about Inca religiosity and architecture (40 min).
• 15.00 hrs We will take our transportation and go to Sacsayhuaman (15 min) we will have a guided tour through the huge walls of this Inca temple built for the god Illapa or lightning (45 min).
• We will take the bus again to Qenqo (5 min) where we will have a tour to this other ancient Inca temple. Then in our mobility we will move forward (10 min) and go to Puka Pucara and Tambomachay water temple. We will finish our tour at 18.00 hrs.
• We will leave you in the center of the city so you can have dinner or stroll through the main square of Cusco.

Lodging: Hotel In Cusco

Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner- Passenger

Day 2: Maras – Moray Tour

Cusco – Chinchero – Moray – Maras – Cusco.

• 07.50 – 08.10 hrs The tour starts picking you up at your hotel, immediately in our bus we will leave to the sacred valley by an alternate route to visit:
• 09.10 hrs CHINCHERO, is an eminently Inca city that the Spaniards tried to civilize to establish their culture, but did not succeed in its entirety because its inhabitants until now resist to leave their culture and Inca customs. They keep alive the textile culture using and weaving their garments for use and decoration, so we will visit a Textile Center to teach us how they dye the sheep and alpaca wool yarn with natural dyes and make garments with ancient techniques, such as the use of the “away” and the “loom”.
• 09. 55 hrs MORAY, is 49.3 Km from Cusco and is a unique archaeological group of its kind. These are depressions or gigantic natural holes in the surface of the land, which were used to build terraces or agricultural terraces with irrigation canals in the surroundings. The most interesting thing is the average annual temperature difference between the top and the bottom of the depressions, which reaches up to 15°C in the 30-meter deep depression.
• 11.20 hrs MARAS, we will visit the famous salt mines known by some as “salt mines” which are made up of about 3000 small wells with an average area of about 5 m², during the dry season are filled or “watered” every 3 days with salt water emanating from a natural spring located at the top of the wells so that, as the water evaporates, the salt contained in it gradually solidifies (50 min.).
• 13.00 hrs Return to Cusco.
• 14.30 hrs Arrival in Cusco, we will leave you very close to the main square so you can go to the restaurant of your choice for lunch.

Lodging: Hotel In Cusco

Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner- Passenger

Day 3: Sacred Valley Tour

Cusco – Pisaq – Mercado Artesanal – Urubamba – Ollantaytambo – Aguas Calientes.

• 08.00 hrs Pick up at your hotel to start the Sacred Valley of the Incas tour, the first place to visit is the archaeological group of Pisaq and the handicraft market.
• Then we will go by bus to Urubamba for lunch buffet at the Tunupa Restaurant. After lunch, we will move on to the living town of Ollantaytambo, a town that still maintains its splendor from when the Incas left it. The visit of the archaeological group of Ollantaytambo will give us an idea of what this religious, military and cultural center was like.
• 16.00 – 19.00 hrs We will go to the train station to board the train that will take us in 1h 45 minutes to the town of Aguas Calientes, hotel staff will be waiting for us to rest tonight in this town of passage.
• 20.30 – 21.00 hrs The guide will visit us at the hotel to coordinate the tour to Machupicchu.

Lodging: HOTEL HUMANTAY

Breakfast – Hotel / Lunch – Agency / Dinner – Passenger

Day 4: Machu Picchu Tour

AGUAS CALIENTES – MACHUPICCHU – OLLANTAYTAMBO – CUSCO.

MACHUPICCHU, ancient Andean Inca settlement, located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru, in the Andes mountain range at 2,430 meters above sea level; it is located in the Cusco region, province of Urubamba, district of Machupicchu. Machu Picchu would have been one of the resting places of Pachacutec, ninth Inca of the Tahuantinsuyo between 1438 and 1470.

Machu Picchu is considered, at the same time, a masterpiece of architecture and engineering. Its peculiar architectural and landscape characteristics and the veil of mystery that has been woven around it in much of the literature published about the site, have made it one of the most popular tourist destinations on the planet, as well as one of the 7th wonders of the modern world.

• At the agreed time with the guide, we will take the bus 30 minutes to the sanctuary of Machupicchu, climbing time 40 min.
• We present the income of Machupicchu and enter to start the visit. Our guide will be waiting for you to direct you to the sanctuary of Machupicchu and make a guided tour of 2 hours and 30 minutes. Booking this tour to Machupicchu you will be able to know the most important archaeological center of South America and all its different tourist attractions.
  At the end of the tour, we can continue visiting alone the beautiful citadel of Machupicchu, then we will board the buses that will return us to the town of Aguas Calientes.
• 12.45 hrs We will go to the restaurant to enjoy a delicious lunch (Optional).
• 14.30 – 19.00 hrs We will board the tourist train at any of the schedules, according to availability with arrival in Ollantaytambo (1h 40 min) Depending on availability.
• REMEMBER, that in high tourism season the train schedules may vary and it is better to make your reservation in advance.
• 15.56 – 20.41 hrs We arrive at the train station in Ollantaytambo, our transfer will be attentive to the arrival to transfer us to the Hotel in Cusco. Travel time 1h 50 min.)
• 18.00 – 22.00 hrs Arrival to the hotel in Cusco.

Hotel PRINCIPE III/ Hotel MAYU WASI

Breakfast – Hotel / Lunch – Agency / Dinner – Passenger