Sun Gate—-Inti Punku

Ollantaytambo is located in The Sacred Valley, surrounded by mountains on all sides. People have been walking through the mountains for centuries, and there are trails everywhere. Monica and I took a day to hike up to the Sun Gate and back. The Incas built Sun Gates all over the Andes. These are structures built to honor the sun, usually at such an angle that they frame a distant mountain and welcome the first rays of the winter solstice. They called these sun gates Inti Punku.

The most famous sun gate is at Machu Picchu. It frames Huaynapicchu. There is also a sun gate near Ollanta. It´s about ten kilometers from the town square, which makes it a twenty kilometer hike. You leave the town square and walk down to the river, then along the river for a while before the trail starts to climb. In all, there is a 3500 foot elevation gain from town up to the gate. The gate is about 12,400 feet above sea level, and it took us six hours of steady ascent to get there.

We set our alarm for 5:00, and we were hiking by a quarter to six. We followed the trail that is marked on a big rock by the Instituto Nacional de Cultura. The trail continues with a view of the train station, with trains leaving for nearby Machu Picchu. The trail goes to the rock quarries, called canteras, where the Incas found and sculpted the giant rocks that they used in Ollanta for their temples.

We continued walking for an hour or so, when we met Neirut and Virginia. They were on their way to school,  and they walk this trail every day. We stopped and talked with them for a while, and shared some chocolate with them. You can think that you are really out there in the wilderness, but people live everywhere in the mountains. Neirut and Virginia live in a little house, that we soon would pass. Later on in the day, when we were returning from high up in the mountains, we ran into them again, returning from their day at school. It kind of puts to shame the myths of “When I was your age, I walked five miles to school, through the snow.” These kids walk through the Andes every day.

Mount Veronica is the tallest mountain near Ollanta. It is a 20,000 foot peak, but you can´t see it from town, because of the other mountains. Once you get around, them, though, Veronica is there.

The trail climbed and climbed, sometimes brutally. We followed some steep switchbacks up and up, and then we arrived at the rock quarry. Huge rocks, some the size of small houses. The Incas came up here and then dragged the rocks down into town. They had to cross the river. For some of the larger rocks, they dragged them to the river, then diverted the river around them, so they didn´t have to drag them through the water. The Incas were so industrious and ingenious. We really worked to get up to the quarry. It´s incredible that they came up here and worked with these giant rocks, sculpting and dragging them.  When we got up to  the quarry, there were some cows, just passing the day.

The trail through the quarry was lined with stones.

Ollantaytambo and the Sacred Valley from the quarry.

They worked on the rocks up here, then moved them down to town. There are a lot of rocks that were on their way down when the work stopped. They´re called piedras cansadas, tired rocks, because they stopped before they made it.

A hiker cansada

There is also a primitive wheel up there. It was obviously sculpted, and it is a mystery. The Incas didn´t have wheels. Perhaps this was a prototype. Maybe somebody was inventing it.

After the quarry, the trail continued up, toward the Sun Gate. We could see it in the distance.

We kept climbing, and it got closer. We could still look down on the valley.

That´s our town, Ollantaytambo.

We passed some ruins on the way up.

Did I mention that we were climbing? It got exciting as we got closer.

It´s on a peak. On three sides of the gate, it is just a dropoff down into the valley. The clouds came down, so we really didn´t get a magnificent view of Mount Veronica, but the views were spectacular nonetheless. Being so high up in the mountains was exhilarating.

The familiar trapezoid shape, with the sides leaning in toward each other, gives strength to the Inca structures.

Another successful outing.