Short Hikes: Cusco to Huchuy Qosqo 2 days

A 2 day hike with Llama's from Cusco to Huchuy Qosqo

This spectacular route leads to Huchuy Qosqo from Tambomachay near Cusco, a magnificent two-day trek along the path once taken by the Inca from his capital to his country estate, along which some sections of the original Inca highway remain intact.

This is certainly the most beautiful short trek in the immediate environs of Cusco, crossing the high altiplano north of the city with its lakes like Qoricocha (Golden Lake) and tiny villages of llama herders where life continues untouched by the modern world, and finishing at the ruins of Huchuy Qosqo, high above the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

Huchuy Qosqo, which in Quechua means "Little Cusco", was the name given to this impressive Inca site some time in the 20th century. Its original name was Kakya Qawani, which translates as from where the lightning can be seen. According to the Spanish chronicler Pedro de Cieza de León, the palaces and temples at Huchuy Qosqo were built by the eighth Inca, Viracocha, who conquered the area by defeating the ethnic groups already settled there.

Huchuy Qosqo is dramatically located on a flat esplanade almost six hundred metres above the villages of Lamay and Calca in the Sacred Valley. The views from the site are magnificent, with the Urubamba river far below meandering through fertile fields, and the sombre Pitusiray massif opposite, surrounded by several other snowy peaks.

The ruins themselves consist of extensive agricultural terraces with high retaining walls, and several buildings made from both the finely-wrought stonework the Incas reserved for their most important constructions, and adobe mud bricks. The Peruvian National Institute of Culture (INC) began restoration work at the site in July 2001.

Private Service

departures any day of the year, private transport to the trailhead, guide, Horses or lama?s to carry the equipment

Included:

- Pick-up by private transport for transfer to trailhead.
- English speaking professional guide.
- Meals: 1 boxlunch, 1 breakfast, 1 lunch, 1 dinner and snacks.
- Cook and cooking equipment.
- Wranglers and pack horses or lama?s
- Taxi from Huchuy Qosqo to Cusco.
- Equipment: 2 person and 3 person tents with ample space for backpacks, thermarest mattresses, dining tent, kitchen tent, tables and seats, cutlery, First aid kit.