Maukallaqta and Puma O’qro
Surprisingly close to Cusco, this Inca archeological site is so rarely visited that most locals haven’t even heard of it.
Read more about Maukallaqta and 14 other Inca sites in my article published by Matador Network!
Maukallaqta is a very well preserved and also recently uncovered and restored area. Only in the past 20 years have archeologists been uncovering the ruins and restoring some of the buildings. Nearby is another archeological site named Puma O’qro. This is a limestone cliff that houses the cave from which the legendary Ayar brothers emerged.
When we got to the ruins Sabina, our guide, gave us a tour starting with her stories of first coming there when she was 11. The ruins were almost entirely covered with plants and layers of dirt burying all but the tops of the walls back then - she didn’t tell us how long ago she was 11 years old. Today, everything looks very well restored and cared for. I didn’t see a single piece of trash anywhere, even though there was only one guy working there. He had us sign in at the entrance to the ruins, but there was no entrance fee or anything more official than the guest book. I found out a few days later that Sabina had told the guy there that we were all her family. My two friends and I were her family from the US. I’m still not sure how she worked that. We would have been happy to pay the 10 soles entrance fee.
Sabina walked us through the ruins and showed us terra cotta molds used to make gold and silver plates and bowls. She showed us the remains of terra cotta chicha barrels and areas covered with pottery shards. She told us which walls were uncovered intact and which ones had been restored from piles of collapsed stones. In some areas the walls were unevenly hewn rock held together with mortar, in other areas there were intact adobe walls and in some areas we saw the characteristic Incan architecture where the stones fit so well together that no mortar was needed.
One particularly impressive area seemed to be some sort of temple to the trinity. The area had three walls, with the open side facing across the valley to Puma O’qro. The three walls each had three large recesses, or niches the size of doors, which each had three levels recessed back into the wall. Three walls, three niches, three levels probably to honor the Incan trinity of the three worlds. The world above is represented by the condor, this world is represented by the puma and the world below is represented by the snake.
We finally had to leave, since it was starting to get late in the afternoon. Walking back to the truck I chatted a bit with the twin daughters that Sabina had brought with her. Chanel and Chantal looked about 7 or 8 years old. They knew a bit about the next stop, Puma O’qro, and the guys filled in their gaps in the legend of the Ayar brothers. These were the first Inca, who emerged from a cave with their sister-wives and, through many adventures, started the Incan civilization. It’s long and complicated, so I’m not going to try to tell the whole thing here, but it’s fascinating and I highly recommend reading up on the Incan Ayar brothers’ legends.
After only a few minutes drive, we stopped at Puma O’qro to visit the cave. First we climbed up top where I was amazed to see the entire limestone outcropping had been carved. From a distance it just looks like a giant piece of exposed bedrock. Up close the whole thing is covered with stairs and the remains of walls. Sabina told us about her first time here too, again when she was 11. The walls there are all original, there has been almost no work done here by the archeologists and certainly no restoration. On top there were the remains of carved pumas and other carvings so eroded by the weather that after 500 years it’s hard to tell what the others used to represent.
Next we walked down around the bottom of the cliff to see what’s left of the cave. Unfortunately, the roof has caved in and Sabinaa had to tell us which giant slabs of limestone had been the roof and what had fallen from other parts of the cliff. There are still lots of obviously carved pieces, one that she explained was the place that they used to sacrifice llamas. Now exposed, it is getting lots of damage from the weather, but when she was little, there were still parts of the stone covered with dried blood. We climbed in and around and over the giant slabs and tried to picture the place as it had been 500 years ago. The nearby village used to have a tunnel that led to the cave, where they hid when enemies approached.
Hearing such personal stories mixed with legend made the whole experience magical. It was so easy to imagine the places as they were when our guide was a little girl, and also what it was like 500 years ago.
How to get there?
In Cusco, ask any taxi driver to take you to Puente Grau for a colectivo to Paruro or Yaurisque. You want to get out in Yaurisque, before the colectivo gets to Paruro. From Yaurisque you can walk about an hour or find a local taxi to take you to the trailhead for Mauk’allaqta. The colectivo to Yaurisque costs s/10 per person but the taxi to the trailhead costs s/20 to s/25 total.
