South Valley

Short Itinerary

8:30 AM – Pick-up at your hotel to explore the South Valley of Cusco.

Tipón: An Inca archaeological site famous for its still-functioning terraces and water channels; a town known for its baked guinea pig.
Oropesa: “Bread Town,” where the traditional chuta, a sweet Andean bread baked in the ground, is made.
Piquillacta: A pre-Inca citadel of the Wari culture, with straight streets and stone structures that demonstrate advanced urban planning.
Andahuaylillas: Visit to the Church of San Pedro Apóstol, a Baroque gem known as the “Sistine Chapel of the Americas.”

Return to Cusco at the end of the tour.

Itinerary

Start – 08:30 | Hotel pickup to begin the excursion to the Southern Valley of Cusco.

Pick-up at the hotel to begin the excursion to the South Valley of Cusco, a less traveled route that combines pre-Hispanic heritage, Inca hydraulic engineering, living traditions and colonial art in a tour of great cultural diversity.

Tipón

Visit the archaeological site of Tipón, an agricultural and ceremonial complex built with monumental terraces and remarkably precise water channels that still function with the same flow designed by the Incas. This site is considered a tribute to the water deities and an outstanding example of Andean hydraulic engineering. The surrounding village maintains ancestral culinary traditions, and is famous for its baked guinea pig, a typical dish prepared in a clay oven.

Oropesa

A stop in Oropesa, known as the “Town of Bread,” a town with a bread-making tradition dating back to colonial times. Here we will observe the artisanal production of chuta, an elongated Andean sweet bread, baked in huatías (earth ovens) and consumed from the time of the Inca Empire to the present day.

Piquillacta

Explore the Piquillacta archaeological complex, an important citadel built by the Wari culture between the 6th and 10th centuries, centuries before the rise of the Inca Empire. Its straight streets, rectangular enclosures, and cyclopean stone structures reflect an advanced system of urban planning and territorial administration that would later influence the Inca Empire.

Andahuaylillas

Visit the Church of Saint Peter the Apostle in Andahuaylillas, a jewel of 17th-century Andean Baroque architecture. Its interior houses gilded altarpieces, canvases from the Cusco School, and the famous Mural of Music, which earned it the nickname “Sistine Chapel of the Americas.” The church is notable for the fusion of European elements and Andean symbols in its decoration.