Chincero and a Hike to Urquillos

Ruinas de Chincero

Well, damn, this was much prettier than I expected.  I had the lovely Annette Stephens visiting for ten days and after she did her Machu Picchu pilgrimage, we had a ladies getaway to the town of Chincero. Chincero is a town about an hour away from Cusco that has pretty spectacular ruins, an amazing old Spanish church built atop an Incan foundation (of what I can't say), and a pretty cool Sunday markets with everything from vegetables to antiques.

Unfortunately, Chincero is not accessible with just a day pass. Annette had her tourist pass but I didn't want or need to pay 40 soles for a few day pass but luckily, after explaining the situation the woman at the gate waved me in.  Yay!

 I wish I could explain how awesome this church is inside.  As soon as I saw the church, I remembered being here from 2007.  In classic, freaky latin american catholic style, there are ceiling-high carved wood alters with built in cubbies that hold flowers and dolls and other secret stuff.  Oh I found a picture on the internet! (see below).

Also, pretty much every square inch of it is painted or a fresco.  Its a weird mix of incan/traditional art and then european paintings.  Pretty fascinating.

so awesomely weird.

lounging

the water still runs

Incredible stonework (no mortar)

Lauren, Jose, Annette

We just showed up in Chincero and found a hostel pretty easy.  A woman dressed in traditional Chincero-area clothing was very friendly and led us to a hostel.  Our host really liked us, even though (or especially because?) I gave him a hard time about what he was charging us. He dropped the price and then wanted a picture with us before we left.  Really nice guy. 

After a bit of breakfast at the hostel, we went ahead and set out for the trail. Our plan was to hike from Chincero to a small town called Urquillos.  Here is a map below:

The trail was beautiful, lush, and full of waterfalls.  There were bits of ruins along the way as well.

You can see this mountain from the satellite image.

Annette and waterfalls

This is so Peruvian.

getting close to Urquillos.


This was an amazingly beautiful hike and the perfect amount of difficultly for someone still adjusting to the altitude - its all downhill!  Can't wait to bring Ashley and Scott when they come in TWO WEEKS.