The Tipon, Pikillaqta, Andahuaylillas Tour explores three beautiful sites south of Cusco.

It is a wonderful way to begin acclimatizing to the high altitude of Cusco and get ready for a trek if you have booked one. This tour is south of Cusco and off the beaten path so you won’t run into many tourists on this one. Tipon has numerous impressive terraces that are still being cultivated today. Amazingly the irrigation system that the Inca’s built is still serving agricultural areas nearby. It consists of carved stone channels, precisely calculated, constituting a hydraulic engineering masterpiece.  

Pikillaqta is a massive pre-Inca ruin site that consists of more than 700 structures: 200 Kanchas (departments), 504 qolqas (storage rooms) and multiple other buildings that could have housed about ten thousand people. The city was displayed in a harmonious and symmetric way, in blocks with straight streets. The walls were made of mud and stones, wide at the bottom and tapering towards the top. In the early 1990’s, these walls were covered with mud 9cm thick, that were then painted with plaster. The floors were also made with a kind of thick plaster which would have displayed the appearance of a white city. 

Andahuaylillas has a stunning church called San Pedro de Andahuaylillas, also known as “The Sistine Chapel of America” due to the quality of its art pieces. Built at the beginning of VII century, the interior of the temple is decorated with murals by Luis Riaño (XVII century). Additionally, the church houses a majestic piano, numerous canvases by the Academy of Cusco, silver work and baroque altars.