Chinchero.

What to do in Chinchero Cusco Peru

Chinchero arranges itself around steep cobblestone lanes leading from the Cusco highway up to an open plateau of Incan terraces. Mornings run on boiling dye pots of cochineal and sheep wool spinning, while afternoons turn quiet once the tour buses depart for Ollantaytambo. It rewards travellers who want highland chill, textile craft observed without theatrical fanfare, and quiet walks among stone farming platforms that predate the Spanish conquest.

24 hours in Chinchero Cusco Peru

Arrive at 8:00 AM by colectivo from Cusco. Tour the seventeenth-century church and the stone retaining wall before crowds build, then spend two hours in a weaving workshop on Calle Anta. For lunch, order sopa de chairo at the market. Finish your afternoon walking the lower terrace trails before taking late transport back down the mountain. Select 1 Day above to see it.

2 days in Chinchero Cusco Peru

Devote your second morning to the stone-paved Incan trail down to Urquillos, a scenic three-hour descent into the Sacred Valley eucalyptus groves. Return uphill by taxi for fried trucha and boiled native potatoes at a roadside picantería, then walk along Laguna Piuray as the late sun hits Mount Salkantay in the distance. Choose 2 Days to expand the plan.

3 days in Chinchero Cusco Peru

A third day allows an unhurried excursion to the terraced sinkholes of Moray and the salt pans of Maras, twenty minutes west. In the late afternoon, browse the Sunday barter stalls in Chinchero's plaza for heirloom potatoes and sip hot muña tea while watching weavers work with bone shuttles in the fading light.

Chinchero Cusco Peru itineraries by interest

• Craft Traditions in Chinchero Cusco Peru

  Watch weavers use backstrap looms, sheep bone tools, and natural cochineal or chilca leaf dyes in family-run workshops along Calle Anta.

• Sacred Architecture in Chinchero Cusco Peru

  Step inside the 1607 Church of Our Lady of Monserrat, built atop Incan stone foundations with floral mural ceilings and carved cedar altars.

• Archaeological Sites in Chinchero Cusco Peru

  Walk the terraced agricultural platforms, stone trapezoidal niches, and royal plaza of Tupac Yupanqui's sprawling fifteenth-century estate.

• Markets & Produce in Chinchero Cusco Peru

  Visit the Sunday morning market on the main square for native freeze-dried chuño, purple maize, fava beans, and bartered Andean tubers.

• Highland Hiking in Chinchero Cusco Peru

  Follow the downhill stone-paved Incan trail starting beside the church plaza through the canyon to Urquillos in the Sacred Valley below.

• Local Food in Chinchero Cusco Peru

  Eat hot bowls of sopa de chairo, roasted cuy with huacatay sauce, and boiled native potatoes served with rocoto chili paste at market stalls.

• Lake Walks in Chinchero Cusco Peru

  Stroll the grassy perimeter trails of Laguna Piuray and Laguna Huaypo for views of snowcapped Mount Veronica and passing grazing herds.

• Street Food in Chinchero Cusco Peru

  Buy warm choclo con queso, fried trout portions with salsa criolla, and fresh anticuchos from vendor carts along the main road to Cusco.

• Traditional Agriculture in Chinchero Cusco Peru

  Observe farmers working steep plots with the foot-plough chaquitaclla and drying Andean grains on woven blankets beneath the midday sun.

• Historic Plazas in Chinchero Cusco Peru

  Rest on the stone benches of the Plaza de Armas to view the massive Incan limestone retaining wall pierced by ten monumental trapezoidal niches.

• Day Trips in Chinchero Cusco Peru

  Catch morning transport north to the salt evaporation pans of Maras and the concentric circular farming terraces of Moray.

• Mountain Biking in Chinchero Cusco Peru

  Ride dirt farm tracks linking Laguna Huaypo to the Maras plateau, passing barley fields with views across the snow-draped Cordillera Vilcabamba.