Inca Trails
QUECHUAS OF PATACANCHA and OLLANTAYTAMBO
Ollantaytambo & Patacancha Valley

Each of these sights, which are described below as 1 day excursions, can also be organized as 2 half-day excursions.

High above the town of Ollantaytambo, in a sprawling red valley beside the Patacancha river, lies the Quechua community of Patacancha. This is a unique ethnic community of “wayruros,” farmers, weavers and herders who are reputed to be direct descendants of the last Incas of Cusco.

We leave early in the morning and drive about 12,400 feet to reach the village. As we begin exploring, we notice the differences between this community and other lower altitude villages in the Sacred Valley: here the houses are not made of brick and mud; they are simple stone structures without windows. This is because the whole family works long hours every day in the fields and the house is simply a warm place to shelter and sleep, not a place of leisure. We also notice that the crops here are not corn but other plants more suited to the altitude, such as potatoes, tarwi and beans. We visit the public school, Cesar Tupacyupanqui (a recent addition, which has received donations from numerous charities), and glance in on classes. We might even learn a few words of Quechua here that we can practice with the people we meet! The villagers are dressed in bright vibrant colors: the women in skirts of orange and black with pink or red scarves and blouses; the men in multicolored ponchos of red, orange, black and pink. Many of the men supplement their income with jobs as porters on the Inca trail. The women and girls carry a small spindle of wool, a puska in one hand while the other hand darts in a quick motion around the spindle. They spin and weave like this wherever they go, so they are always in the middle of creating something new to wear or sell. If we visit on a Sunday, we will be greeted with the sights of the weekly market that draws other communities from the valley to barter goods such as textiles, beans, potatoes, quinoa and also to eat, drink and revel.

We have several options for our descent to the village of Ollantaytambo, a distance of approximately 14 km: we can drive (40 minutes), or walk (4-5 hours) or bicycle (2.5 hours). Whatever route we choose, it is a lovely journey down a winding earthen road, past green slopes with waterfalls, Inca terraces and streams, past small villages and intermittent herds of cattle. We will probably see men, women and children working in fields, and as we get to the lower villages, we may see blocks of adobe bricks baking in the sun. We will also pass Marca Cocha, a vast valley with a river running through it where archeologists have uncovered proof of farming from 3000 to 4000 BC. An optional side trip is a 1-hour ascent to the Inca ruins of Pumamarca (Village of the Puma) on a high plateau overlooking the valley. It is a large, walled enclosure which looks like a fortress but its pirqa or coarse style of construction and its colqas (granaries) suggest it may have had more utilitarian uses such as holding cattle and storing the harvest, or as an administrative center for overseeing farming in the valley below.

We have a box lunch in the village of Ollantaytambo. Then we set out exploring once again. The village dates from the fifteenth century and retains the original Inca layout, the only such village in Peru. It is laid out in a trapezoid grid (a favorite shape of the Incas) and then subdivided into numerous canchas, rectangular courtyards surrounded by houses. We also visit the famous Inca ruins cut into the mountain above the village. There are many legends about these ruins: some say that they are the tambo or lodge of Ollantay, a local chieftain who nursed a forbidden love for the daughter of the great Inca Pachacuteq; others say that this was the place owned by the panaca or royal family of Pachacuteq; and still others believe the tambo refers to an Pre-Inca tribe that occupied the area. What is known for sure is that Ollantaytambo was probably the site of a decisive battle between the Spaniards and Manco Inca who successfully defeated them by flooding the valley and then escaping into his jungle fortress Vilcabamba, where he stayed for 37 years.

It is also clear that this was not meant to be a fortress but rather an agricultural, religious and administrative center. There are great curved terraces in the middle of the mountain. To the left of these terraces are the principal religious structures, including the famous unfinished Temple of the Sun, composed of enormous slabs of pink rhyolite that were quarried on a mountain opposite the site and then transported down this mountain, across a valley and up to Ollantaytambo, a mind-boggling feat. The site also features delicate and beautiful fountains, a “Temple of the Condor,” and numerous rocks and stones with a variety of indentations and grooves that may have been used for astronomical observations. The most notable of these is a vertical rock face with protruding knobs that some say is a solar clock that marks the December solstice and the zenith of the sun. In fact, the whole of Ollantaytambo serves an astronomical purpose – the site is said to be laid out in the shape of a llama and high up on the mountain, a stone enclosure called the “eye of the llama” catches the first rays of the solstice sun.

The other notable aspect of Ollantaytambo is that it is an unfinished site. We visit the “ramp” leading to the incomplete Sun Temple where slabs of rhyolite slabs were found, suggesting that work on the site stopped abruptly. Explanations for this interruption range from the approach of the Spaniards, to the Inca Civil war to the death of the monarch Pachacuteq. Whatever the reason, these amazing and evocative structures still bear full evidence of the great craft and innovation of the Incas.