The Vilcanota valley south of Cusco is the old highway of the Andes, and the Inca road ran along it towards Lake Titicaca and the southern provinces of the empire. The segment between Machaqmarka, Raqchi and Qquea is one of the sections of the Qhapaq Ñan listed by UNESCO, and it passes one of the most impressive Inca sites outside Cusco. At Raqchi, near San Pedro de Cacha, the Temple of Wiracocha, dedicated to the creator god, was an enormous building with a central wall of stone and adobe that still rises around fifteen metres high, flanked by rows of columns. Around it are the remains of storehouses, the round qollqas, lined up in rows, houses, baths and fountains, and a lava field from the nearby volcano of Kinsach'ata, which according to legend erupted when Wiracocha passed by. The village holds a festival in June, with music and dancing.
The valley is also the land of Túpac Amaru II, the leader of the great indigenous rebellion of 1780 against Spanish rule. José Gabriel Condorcanqui, a local cacique who took the name of the last Inca, launched the uprising in the nearby town of Tinta, and although it was crushed and he was executed in Cusco in 1781, he remains a national hero in Peru. Tinta, Tungasuca and the villages around keep his memory alive.
The landscape is wide and green, with the Vilcanota river flowing through fields of maize, potatoes and barley, and mountains rising on both sides, some capped with snow. The villages are built of adobe, with red-tiled roofs, and the churches, like the one in Andahuaylillas further north, known as the Sistine Chapel of the Andes, are full of colonial paintings.
The riding is good. The paved highway from Cusco to Puno runs along the valley, with gentle curves, good surface and views over the river and the mountains, though trucks and buses can be heavy. The side roads to the villages are narrower, often unpaved. Altitude, around three and a half thousand metres, demands acclimatisation, and the weather can change quickly.
Sicuani, about eighteen kilometres away, has fuel, mechanics and restaurants, and the villages along the highway have small shops. Try chicha de jora, a fermented maize drink, in a village bar marked by a red flag.