A day hike in the Sacred Valley of the incas
The Sacred Valley deserves its name as a valley that’s full of sacred Inca and pre-Inca sites. Inti Punku overlooks one of the most important: Ollantaytambo. The town itself was a sacred place and today has an estimated forty archeological sites, with even more sites surrounding the ancient town.
I highly recommend spending a couple days in Ollantaytambo, Most major archeological sites are close to the valley floor, where the Inca almost never built. Most Inca towns and other constructions are up above the valley floor, both protecting them from seasonal floods and leaving more space for planting.
One of the Inca’s main sources of power was their control of food. As the saying goes, the best way to a person’s heart is through their stomach. If crops failed in one part of the Inca’s territory, called Tahuantinsuyu, the Inca sent dried corn, potatoes and other staples from an area that had a good harvest. Controlling who planted what, and how much was stored for emergencies, was an important part of how the Inca controlled so much of South America.
Built so high above the valley, Inti Punku seems more likely to have been an observatory and a place for ceremonies. According to archeologist Óscar Montúfar, when archeologists did a formal dig at the site, they found that the whole area had been looted. Not only were there no artifacts to find, but the layers of dirt had been so disturbed that it was impossible to glean any information about how the site was used.
I recommend starting early in the morning because there is no shade, and the equatorial sun is very strong at this altitude. Take a good hat and sunscreen!
Take plenty of water, because there are no water sources along the way. If you ever have knee pain on steep trails, definitely take hiking poles with you. You’ll be happy to have them, especially for the way back down. Many trails in the Sacred Valley go past communities, where you can buy food. However, nobody lives along this trail so make sure you bring enough snacks to get through a long day.
The elevation gain is what makes this hike so hard. It’s 3,870 feet (1,180m), from Ollantaytambo at 9,160 feet (2,792m) up to 13,035 (3,972).
Most people start in Ollantaytambo, at a spot called the Inca Bridge. It’s about 10.2 miles (16.4km) round trip. The beginning of the Cachiccata trail was just too steep 8.6 miles round trip (13.8km).
The trail is very easy to follow, though it does need more signs.
