SOUTHERN ROUTE OF THE SUN AND THE MOON 5 Days – 4 Nights

Day 1 Tambo Colorado, Huaytará & Incahuasi Archaeological Ruins

Predawn pickup and transfer to Cruz del Sur Bus Station in Lima for transfer to Paracas (approximately 3½ hours). There you will be met by your tour leader/translator, a local archaeologist and your driver. From there, it's approximately a 1-hour ride to the rarely visited Inca ruins of Tambo Colorado.

An administrative, urban and military center that dates from the Late Horizon 1440-1532 CE (Common Era), Tambo Colorado takes its name from the union of the Quechua word “tampu,” which means resting place, and the Spanish term “colorado,” from the presence of red, white and yellow pigments used to decorate its adobe walls. The site covers an area of more than 12,900 square feet. Of its six sectors, sector two merits special attention. It’s known as the Fort, and is the best preserved of the ruins.

The next ruins you will visit is Huaytará (Temple of the Sun and the Moon), where you'll find the Baths of the Incas, engineered with a series of channels used to collect thermally heated water. The site features exemplary characteristics of in its construction: recesses, niches, trapezoidal doorways, etc. Spanish colonial authorities built the Church of San Juan de Huaytará atop the base of an Inca Palace with walls nearly 5½ feet thick and 12 feet high.

Finally, you tour Incahuasi Archaeological Complex. In the city of Incahausi, on a broad terrace, lies the Palace of the Inca, the most important monument in the Huancavelica region. It’s built of polished stones, trapezoidal walls and doorways with beautifully flat and flush stonework, and niches on both interior and exterior walls. This site presents diverse living areas, plazas, warehouses and channels. There are also separate spaces that served as astronomical observatories, utilizing solar calendars and sundials.

At approximately 6 p.m., you arrive in , and are taken to your hotel for check-in. (B)

DAY 2 Ayacucho - City Tour

After breakfast, you are picked up by your guide for a walking tour of the city. The excursion begins with the main square, built around a statue of General Mariscal Sucre, then continues on to the Cathedral, the national University of Huamanga and Museo de Arte Popular as well as several historic colonial mansions. After a break for lunch, you go by private vehicle to visit the Museo de Memoria, the Mirador del cerro Acuchimay (a scenic overview of the city); and the artisan workshops of Santa Ana, famed for their distinctive carpets, rugs, tapestries, stone carved and ceramic figures and intricately painted wood “retablo” alters. (B)

Day 3 Intihuatana - Vilcashuaman

After breakfast, you are picked up by your English-speaking guide/translator, a local archaeologist and your driver and head out for a full-day excursion to the ruins of the Inca administrative center Vilcashuamán (“Sacred Falcon”). Before arriving at that destination, you visit the village of Vischongo, from where you’ll make a 1-hour side trek uphill to the Inca baths of Intihuatana, located on the shores of the Pomacocha Lagoon at 10,255 feet above sea level. The complex is believed to have been a residential zone and a retreat for the Inca elite. The site is comprised of several ruins, including the remnants of a palace, a tower, and the baths of the Inca, featuring a carved stone with 13 angles.

You continue on to Vilcashuamán, which lies at the strategic crossroad where the Qapac Ñan road (a royal Inca trail that spanned the spine of the Andes ) intersected the highway from to the Pacifice coast. A parish church now sits atop the magnificent base of a Sun Temple within a trapezoidal plaza. Nearby is an "usnu" or five-tiered pyramid, topped by a huge double throne carved from stone.

Following your tour, you make the 74 mile trip back north to Ayacucho, and back to your hotel for the night. (B/ Box Lunch)

Day 4 Wari – Quinua - Huanta

Following breakfast, you are met at your hotel by your English-speaking guide, a local archaeologist and driver for your full-day excursion, stopping first at the pre-Inca ruins of Wari. Scientists believe this was once home to 50,000 inhabitants and reached its apogee in 900 C.E. (Common Era). The ruins include retaining walls, tombs and canals, as well as a small museum of artifacts.

Then you head a short distance further along the road to reach Quinua, an artisan town of red-tiled roof houses, each topped with a small ceramic church to ward off evil spirits. The town is world- renowned for its distinctive ceramics. Along the main road into town is an open air artisan market and food stalls where deep fried pork ribs and guinea pig, known as "cuy," are served with potatoes and giant kernel corn. Stone steps leads to the main cobblestone plaza, surrounded by whitewashed buildings and the town church. Here, too, is the small museum where the “Capitulation of Ayacucho” was signed, sealing South American Liberty from the Spanish. Just across the road from the town is the “Pampa de Quinua,” a grassy plain with a huge white obelisk rising from its center to commemorate the historically decisive 1824 battle that pitted the combined forces of South American nations against the Spanish Royalist army. Then you continue on to the town of Huanta, with its cathedral, waterfalls and beautiful landscapes. Along the way, you’ll pass Piquimachay, a prehistoric cave dwelling believed to have been home to some of the earliest human settlers on the continent. (B)

DAY 5 Farewell

After breakfast, you will be picked up for transport to the airport for your flight back to Lima.

Breakfast (B) Lunch (L) Price per Person: (Bus Lima / Paracas vía Cruz del Sur)

Hotel Santa Rosa USD $1680.00 or Hotel Vía Vía USD $1670.00

Airfare on Star : Ayacucho / Lima 06:50 07:40 Price per person: USD $110.00

Package Includes:  Transfer in / out  Cruz del Sur Royal Class tickets  Excursions mentioned on the itinerary  Box lunch for Vilcashuamán excursion  Guide / Translator in English & local archaeologist  04 Nights of accommodation + breakfasts  tourist ticket  Permanent Assistance

Not Included:  Drinks or meals not mentioned in the itinerary  Airfare Ayacucho-Lima  Airport Tax

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