Riding Tour in the Sacred Valley

The day starts with a coffee or tea and a briefing about the tour, the horses, and all safety & riding instructions.
The tour starts at the riding centre in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. The riding centre is perfectly located in the heart of the Sacred Valley, between Cusco and Machu Picchu.
Today you will have the opportunity to become familiar with your beautiful Peruvian Paso horses and the traditional Peruvian riding gear. In the morning you will get acquainted with the classical Peruvian riding style when you will practice riding in the safety of our corral. Around 12:30 pm we will enjoy a barbecue at the ranch.
As the day cools you will mount for a leisurely (2-3 hour-) riding tour of the area. Before dinner you will get together for an informal briefing and to watch a video about the Peruvian Paso horse. Have a good night's rest at the comfortable Hotel Posada del Inca in Yucay because tomorrow you will start your riding tour adventure.

Hotel Posada del Inca

After breakfast, depart at 8:00 am. Towards the picturesque village of Ollantaytambo. The first 60 minutes of the ride is on a paved road. Unfortunately this is the only route, but nevertheless the road offers spectacular views of the surrounding mountains and river. Our horses are incredibly sure footed, with no fear of the traffic.
We pass through Yanahuara, a small village en route, providing another great photo opportunity. After a short lunch break we head towards the major Inca temple/fortress of Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo, is said to have been built by the great Inca ruler Pachacutec in the 1460's. It was the site of Hernando Pizarro's defeat by Manco Inca in 1536. Constructed of finely cut polygonal stones and rhyolite blocks, the fortress and nearby town represent the best of Inca architecture and construction. Furthermore, Ollantaytambo is one of the only excisting towns whose street plan is laid out exactly the way it was planned by the Incas. We will have time to visit the ruins here as well as other ruins nearby. We will spend the night in a comfortable hotel in Ollantaytambo.

Meals: B & L

After breakfast we saddle up our horses and depart around 9:00 am. To Puente Pachar. Here we cross the Urubamba River for the climb of almost 800 meters to the altiplano of the Andes. This climb takes about two hours. (Take it easy because the change of altitude does not only affect the horses). Once we are at 3700m you will be impressed by the sight of the snow-capped mountains of Chicon, Veronica and Salcantay and the beautiful alti-plano of the Andes that surrounds us. After a picnic lunch we continue our ride to Moray. This site is a classic piece of earthwork. The ancient peoples of the region took three huge natural depressions in the landscape and sculpted them into levels of agricultural terraces that served, hundreds of years ago, as an experimental agricultural station for the development of different crop strains. This was possible due to the discovery of a fascinating phenomenon: the climates of many different ecological zones were present at a single site. In the thirty or so meters of altitude between the bottom and top levels of Moray's main depression one scientist, John Earls, has recorded a full 15 degrees Celsius difference in temperature. Conceivably it was Moray itself that played the key role in the original transformation of maize into a high-altitude crop! Overnight lodging provided at the Hotel Posada del Inca in Yucay.

Hotel Posada del Inca  |   Meals: B & L

After a filling buffet-breakfast we continue our tour following primitive trails to Maras, a typical Andean village with a beautiful 400-year-old colonial church. The scenery is spectacular; snow-capped mountains, wild flowers and beautiful mountain lakes. We will meet the smiling Quechua children with their herds of sheep or cattle and see the 'campesinos' ploughing their fields in the traditional way. We follow the trail to Huaypo Lake, a beautiful lake where we enjoy our picnic lunch.
In the afternoon we follow the route to a remarkable site known as the Salineras. This is a huge accumulation of terraces, watered by a saline underground stream that collects salt by evaporation. The Salineras have been worked since pre-Hispanic times. The dazzling, salt-encrusted terraces make an extraordinary sight, especially for photographers. From the saltpans we follow a rocky path downhill, which leads us back to the Sacred Valley and return to the riding centre. We return to the Hotel Posada del Inca for our last night of celebrations.

Hotel Posada del Inca  |   Meals: B & L