By: MJ + PJ
The entry for these locations were included on the tourist ticket, however the tours/buses had to be arranged separately. Our child, being under ten years old, did not need a ticket and was free. Most tourist locations and some buses in Peru did not charge for him accompanying us. This is a very welcome cost break for families traveling on a budget!
HALF DAY CITY TOUR
Our first foray into the word of the Inca came on the third day. We had changed from our hotel to the hostal in the morning and so in the afternoon we did the half day city tour. This included the Qorikancha, Saqsaywaman, Q’enqo, Puca Pucara, and Tambomachay sites, and the Textiles Ccori Vicuña store.
There is a lot to learn and appreciate about the Incas in the immediate vicinity of Cusco. From the layout of the city streets, to the construction methods, to the utilization of resources, our minds were both saturated and blown at the end of the tour. We purchased a book on the bus at the end of the day, by a local author, that gave us good insight into the sites in the area for days to come. We arrived back in Cusco after dark, needing to recharge for what would be another big day the next day.
FULL DAY REGION TOUR
The following day we did the full day tour which took us to the Sacred Valley region This was a very long and fast moving day, covering the Inca sites up to a few hours out of Cusco to the north and east. This included seeing traditional textiles making at the Chinchero District, the agricultural laboratory at Moray, the Inca salt pans of Maras, having lunch at Urubabma, seeing the Ollantaytambo Sanctuary, the vast terraces at Pisaq Archaeological Park, and observing silver working in Joyeria Koraly at Pisac.
It is hard to pick a highlight from the locations of this day. Each were rewarding and very educational, and we wished we had more time at some of them. The bookends of the day were more practical, with local people demonstrating their skills and crafts. The middle of the day was bussing from place to place and walking around learning about the significance of these major Inca sites.
HALF DAY TOUR TO SOUTH EAST
Later in our 10 day tourist ticket window, we did a half day tour to Tipon and Pikillaqta. These were the two places remaining to see on our tourist ticket come the end of our first week. We had to take a look online to see what and where they were, and how we might see them. The online price of USD$106 per person was not what we paid at the closest tourist office to our hostal. We paid s/75, which is about USD$25. We saved ourselves $293 by being here in the off season, and having the space and time to not have to book ahead or online.
Pikillacta was a pre-Incan site, which was abandoned for unknown reasons but with disease being a suspect cause. Tipon was a fascinating site where water was expertly controlled by the Incas. Both were more amazing once we had a look at them on Google Maps – it was much more extensive than we saw or expected as seen from an aerial view. For this reason, is is a good idea to do some basic research on a number of fronts to get the most out of these sites (advice even we should heed more often!). Check out these simple sources:
- Wikipedia – gives you the general overview for most sites.
- Google Maps – gives you an idea of how big and complex and area you are visiting.
- Visit the Peru Tourism website
In summary what we noticed about these tours was that they keep you moving. Although the distances are not far between locations, traffic and the limited speed of the buses were a factor in keeping to schedule. If you wanted to take a long look at some of the larger sites (Moray and Ollantaytambo in particular) it may be better to arrange a day visit, or stay in one of the towns close to those sites. As a family, the site visits were short enough to accommodate the attention span of our child, but not fully satisfying in terms of being able to explore the larger sites.
The big picture is you can’t lose by coming here – there is so much to see and learn about and experience it is ridiculous.
