ADVENTURES OUT OF OLLANTAYTAMBO
- Joelle McDonald
- Jul 20, 2025
- 14 min read
Where We Stayed
Originally, Hannah and I booked a hotel that our friend stayed in when she visited Ollantaytambo, but after some very confusing messages with that hotel (in which they told us their water was out, included pictures of them trying to fix it, and cancelled and uncanceled multiple times), we ended up accommodation-less. Hannah was stressing about our lack of a place to stay the whole way to Ollantaytambo. It was the first time we’d ever shown up somewhere without a place to stay. We ended up trying a different suggested hotel, crashing into their door with our backpacks, empty suitcases, and the trash bag of clothes we ended up with when we cleared out our hiking duffel bag. Our trekking group dropped us off on the side of the main road in town, so it was a clunky adventure finding the hotel. The woman behind the desk helped us in, and we were grateful when she offered us a room. We ended up staying three nights in total.
In between our first and second nights at the last-minute hotel, Hannah and I did a homestay in a small village outside of Ollantaytambo to visit and learn from a community of women weavers. Read about that experience in the adventure section!
Fun Facts
Ollantaytambo looks like a real mouthful, but when you break it down, it’s more manageable. “Tambo” signifies inn or lodge in Quechua, so it could translate to Ollantay Inn.
Ollantaytambo is a really small town, usually just passed through by tourists on their way to and from Machu Picchu. We could tell how unserviced it was when we asked someone for the nearest post office, and they said we could take a shared cab 40 minutes each way to the next big town. Umm, pass. It least it would have been cheap, just 2 soles.
Eats
Despite being so small, Ollantaytambo is filled with restaurant options. Tourism must be the main industry here, with the English menus and vegan options to prove it. Hannah and I's favorite spot is called Cuchara Llena, with a full vegan menu and living room vibes, complete with games to play while we wait. Latin America's service speed isn't exactly as quick as that in the State's, so we appreciate the entertainment. We also ate at a restaurant advertising a veggie burger, fried potatoes, and juice for just $5 a person, not bad.
Our more local food experience came before our visit to the Women's Weaving Collective. The company suggested bringing fresh fruit as a gift to our hosts because it can be hard to get in the village. Right before our pickup time for the drive to the village, we rushed around town, trying to find a market or grocery store. With the help of a tourist information booth, we found the locals' market. The smell of dead, dangling carcasses penetrates all the way to the fruit stands. We bought a few oranges and a banana bunch for a couple soles to show our hosts appreciation.
Streets
Ollantaytambo is a special town, in part because it retains the original layout and structure it had when first built by the Incas. The streets are laid out in a stone grid, with canals built into the alleys full of water. Incan engineering was truly impressive. These water canals are still used today. We saw many business owners scoop buckets out to wash their sidewalks, a common practice in Latin America. The original Incan structure creates a cozy charm in the alleyways around our hotel, which are pedestrian only and bump right up to one of the tall mountainsides demarcating the edge of town.
An interesting quirk of Ollantaytambo, being home to the most important rail station for tourist travel to Machu Picchu, is the cycle of people throughout the day. We stayed long enough to witness a few cycles. In the morning it is calm and quiet, hardly anyone to be seen. As it gets later in the morning, a few more people trickle in. Then, around mid-afternoon, the town is blasted with people from the arrival of the train. The archeological site goes from lightly visited to standing room only, and traffic noises begin bouncing off the mountain walls. Some people pass straight through to return to Cusco, while others spend a few hours checking out Ollantaytabmo before they go. Either way, by nightfall the town is once again peaceful and quiet.
Sights
In Ollantaytambo
Ollantaytambo has two main sights to see in town: the fortress ruins and the granary ruins. The archeological fortress is built into the mountainside West of town and the granary is built up the mountainside East of town. The town itself is nestled in between the two mountainsides.
Fortress Ruins
Because Ollantaytambo is so small, it's an easy walk to the archeological site for the fortress ruins. We made the mistake of coming during the rush of people from the train, so our visit is very crowded. The beginning of our tour is a workout, climbing a massive staircase to reach the top of the huge agricultural terraces, where the more cultural construction lies. We first see the more spiritual area, its purpose clearly indicated by the perfectly aligned stone construction. The Sun Temple is a particularly impressive wall erected from tall, smooth stone.
We climb a bit higher to find the military areas. From this high, there is a clear view in almost every direction, making this a strategic defensible area. Interestingly, it is believed that the construction of Ollantaytambo's fortress was never completed, interrupted by the Spanish conquest. This was the site of the Battle of Ollantaytambo, a rare historical victory of Incans against the Spanish.
The Granary
We visited the Granary just as it opened on our last morning in Ollantaytambo, meaning we had it to ourselves. It's free to visit and a bit of a climb, but we got to see the entire town waking up below us and a great view of the fortress on the mountain opposite us. The Granary consists of a few buildings stacked one above the other on the hillside, used for food storage. This location was a strategic choice because getting to the food was challenging, making the town's food stores more easily defensible.
Outside Ollantaytambo
Our flight out of Peru was late at night, so Hannah and I decided to make a day of our journey to the airport. We hired a cab for a flat fee to spend the whole day with us, taking us to the famous sites between Ollantaytambo and the Cusco Airport before dropping us off.
Moray Archeological Site
Our first stop is the ruins of Moray. If anyone was under the impression that the Incan Empire was not an advanced society, a visit to this site will correct that. This was an agricultural research site that the Incas built to test the best conditions in which to grow certain plants. There are a number of terraces constructed in a circular shape. Each terrace has its own microclimate because of its elevation variance, and the circular shape means that plants within a single terrace experience varying sunlight and weather conditions. Some terraces are shaded, while others get full and partial sun. This allowed the Incas to observe how different plants respond to their environment to optimize their agricultural practices. It is also just really neat to look at.
Salineras de Maras
Our next stop is the Salineras de Maras, a mountainside which was transformed long ago to produce salt from a single salty spring that surfaces here. After paying an entrance fee, we wind along the road and get our first view of the salt pools. Imagine an entire mountainside, leveled in an array of countless pools only a few meters wide, each its own shade between white and tan. Some are watery and others look powdery. When we get close enough, we get out of the cab and walk to the viewing areas (the traffic was crazy). While nearly everyone in the hoards of tourists get their Instagram pictures then go on their way, Hannah and I are in awe of the ingenuity of the Salineras. I'll break down how they work for you.
A salt spring surfaces into a constructed channel, which flows past every pool constructed on the mountainside.
Each pool is owned by a specific family and only a few inches deep. At their preassigned time, each family is allowed to redirect the flow of water from the channel into their own pool using stones. Once their pool is filled, they redirect the channel's flow to the communal path.
The salty spring water sits in each family's pool for a few weeks, drying out quickly in the intense sun at this high elevation.
As the salt dries, the family stirs the pool occasionally.
Once dry, someone comes and scoops up the salt into sacks, emptying the pool.
The sacks of salt are shoveled through a large screen to break up any chunks. The resulting salt is then sold.
The process repeats.
Impressive engineering, right? Worthy of more than being an Instagram background. These pools are hundreds of years old and are still used as originally designed. We saw several people actively working in the pools, and we purchased a small pouch from one of the vendors. It tastes so yummy!
Chinchero
Our final stop on the way to the airport is Chinchero. This town is the future home to Cusco's new international airport (a train to the city will be built), but today we are here for ruins. We are surprised to find another town here that feels like it still has its Incan footprint. This town, however, was much changed during the Spanish conquest. The archeological site is interesting because you can see both Incan agricultural terraces and the church the Spanish built right on top of them. It's a great illustration of how Incan heritage has persisted, while being culturally transformed by colonialism.
A Side Quest
Seeing as we left Ollantaytambo this morning and have only been snacking due to a lack of vegan options in these small towns, we ask our driver about stopping for food before going to the airport. Hannah and I try to explain this to our driver, while rationing the little cash we have left, and that results in confusion. Our hope is to stop at our favorite Cusco restaurant, Green Point, to pickup some to-go empanadas and treats. Somehow, that does happen, and we grab a cookie to thank our driver.
Adventures
Homestay and Village Tour with Artisan Weavers
About the Experience
When planning our trip, Hannah used ChatGPT to help find a weaving lesson. Through that search, we discovered Awamaki, a nonprofit that partners with rural Quechua women to create sustainable economic opportunities through heritage textiles and tourism. Awamaki gave us the opportunity not only to learn about the weaving process and try it ourselves, but also to stay with a host family and participate in other local traditions. We get picked up in the town square of Ollantaytabmbo and are driven about an hour to Huilloc, a local indigenous village.
Weaving Pt. 1
When we arrive, we are greeted by two women who offer each of us a necklace made of flowers that traditionally represent welcoming. After being given a cup of tea each, the women launch into an explanation and demonstration of the yarn preparation process, the necessary precursor to weaving. First they show us a variety of natural wool types and colors. We learn that sheep wool has to be washed before use, whereas llama and alpaca wool cannot be washed. We are amazed when one of our hosts shreds a root into a bowl of warm water, which makes a sudsy soap that she uses to clean the wool. It was like magic! Who knew nature grew soap? They did.
Next, the women show us the process they use to spin raw wool into yarn. They do a technique called drop-spinning, where they use a tool that looks like a top and drop it in a spin. As the tool spins, it twists the wool into yarn. The women have to skillfully release the right amount of raw wool at a time to get a consistent yarn thickness. Hannah and I each give it a try, and let's just say it takes real skill that we do not possess.
The next step in the process is dying the wool. The women show us a variety of natural ingredients that they use in different combinations to create dyes. They mix these in boiling water and soak the yarn in it. They demonstrate the process by dying a white skein golden yellow.
Now that we know how the string is created, Hannah and I each get to pick a bracelet pattern to weave. The technique used here is called backstrap weaving, where tension is created by tethering your work to your waist. Usually the loom is created with wooden sticks, but our loom is made only of string and rusty nails. This is definitely the beginners version of backstrap weaving. The women do most of the work, picking which strings to weave between and securing them between each row. Hannah and I try to keep track of everything that is happening in front of our eyes. How the pattern emerges is somewhat of a mystery to us.
As we weave, a woman's young son sits and plays next to us. He is about a year and a half old and entertains himself by playing with spare rusty nails and a rock, which is used as a hammer to stake the nails into the dirt. He seems perfectly safe and content.
After our weaving session, we are fed a yummy homemade lunch in a dining area the collective has constructed upstairs. After lunch, each of the artisans has put out a blanket to sell us their work. The large blankets have stories woven into them through the designs, and in the community, they are used for everything, including carrying kids and goods. We want to support them and the collective's mission (while sticking to a budget), so in gratitude, we buy something small from each of their blankets. Then, we all walk together toward town. As we near the house for our homestay, we see the town's kids running out of school, dismissed for the day.
Homestay
When we arrive at our homestay, we are first greeted by our host mom, who after we put our bags down immediately begins dressing us in traditional clothes. First she ties a skirt around each of our waists, then she pins a thick blanket around our shoulders and gives us a hat, just like those we've seen every woman in town wearing. Though to us the clothes feel very strange, they are exactly what we have seen every woman in town wearing. Unfortunately, Hannah's blanket smelled like pee, and after wearing it all afternoon and evening, she too smelled like pee.
We are given a few minutes to settle in, during which time we take in the house. There is a large main house where the family lives. It is two stories and has a bathroom attached for our use. Behind the house, there are two more buildings, one is the kitchen and dining room and the other is a two room building for us and our guide. Between the two buildings there is a yard and a small livestock area.
Once we have settled in, another collective member and her daughter come to lead us in a medicine walk. On this walk, we follow a trail along the river to the next village, collecting a wide variety of plants as we go. We pass dirt mounds that are the beginning of construction for the town's new soccer fields. Once we reach the outskirts of the next town, we sit in a field and each plant is arranged on a blanket. The medicine woman and her twelve-year-old daughter explained to us the use of each plant they had collected in Quechua, which was translated to us by our guide. This was honestly a lot of information, very little of which I retained, but it was super interesting to hear the very real and effective uses many of these wild plants have.
After our lengthy lesson in medicinal plants, we made our way back to our host home. The walk back may have been more culturally immersive than the medicine walk itself! As we walked, the twelve-year-old daughter found a large dry branch, which she decided to drag behind her the entire way home for her family's fire. We also ran into her cousins, also girls her age who were herding their family sheep home for the night. Hannah and I got real culture shock when our medicine walk leader picked a spot and told all of us to sit. We all probably sat there for twenty minutes for no reason in particular. Coming from the US where absolutely everything is "go, go, go," sitting for no particular reason, for no particular duration, in a random place felt extremely off putting. As we finished our walk home, we passed many of the village's women, every single one with an active spin drop in hand.
When we arrived at our host home, we made tea with some of the medicinal plants we collected and snacked on popcorn before eating dinner and dessert, made by our host dad. During dinner, we chatted with our guide and learned more about Awamaki. Each community that Awamaki partners with specializes in a different part of the weaving process. Awamaki purchases the work completed at each stage from the women in that weaving collective and then passes it to the next group, with each community contributing a unique element to the final product. In addition, Awamaki supports artisans by building skills, providing access to markets, and fostering the confidence needed to commercialize their traditional work. Some communities have also expanded into tourism, including hosting visits like ours, while others focus solely on textile production. We said goodnight early, exhausted from a day immersed in a completely unfamiliar culture, and fell asleep to the giggle of little grandkids, who came over to visit after dinner.
In the morning, we got the thrill of waking up to llamas right outside our window. We got dressed and were given banana pancakes for breakfast. Hannah, who despises bananas, very bravely ate half of hers before our host dad left the kitchen and she could sneakily slid it onto my plate without being rude.
Weaving Pt. 2
After breakfast on our second and last day with the weavers, we walked through the village and back to the collective. We were greeted with Muña tea from freshly collected leaves. Very appreciated until I noticed all the boiled dead bugs floating in it...
Today, we get to do a more advanced project: making a headband. We each pick out the pattern and colors we want to do from the options they provide and watch while the weavers set up the back straps. This project takes much longer than the bracelets yesterday, so I had more time to figure out the pattern of which strings to tug when. I wanted to get a little more hands-on and my teacher didn't seem to believe in me because she was essentially weaving the whole thing herself while the backstrap was tethered to my waist. I got more involved anyway, beating her to certain moves, helping her when I could, and at times I ended up literally holding her hand as we both did the same thing at the same time. She did eventually relinquish more work over to me, and I got to appreciate just how challenging this type of weaving is. She did complement my work on the intricate friendship bracelet I was wearing and was impressed that I made it myself. I think that helped my case with her trusting me.
In the end, Hannah and I each left with a very cool (if itchy) headband, an appreciation for the patience and skill back strap weaving takes, and intercultural connections that we couldn't have gotten any other way.
Earth Oven
The conclusion of our experience is one last very special lunch made in an earth oven. This cooking tradition is usually used on very celebratory or important occasions. Our hosts tell us our presence today is that type of an occasion. They are probably right because our tour fee is a serious boost compared to average salaries in this area.
To begin, each food that will be cooked is introduced. First is at least a dozen varieties of potatoes, all of which they say have completely different tastes and textures. We will also cook unpeeled plantains, chicken wrapped in foil, and beans–still in their pods. Once we have bundled all the food into a blanket, we carry it to the riverside.
On the bank of the small river, we pass kids fishing with their bare hands, and then reach the oven site, where a fire is already burning to heat the rocks we will use for cooking. Our hosts use shovels to maneuver the hot rocks out of the bowl-like hole the fire was in. Then, we add the chicken followed by the other ingredients, layering hot rocks in amongst the food as we go. Once everything is in the oven, our hosts cover the mound in straw, then cardboard, a tarp, and finally a layer of dirt. This will trap the heat in to cook the food properly. After about an hour, which we filled with weaving, we return to collect our food. We unbury it, then picked each item one by one from the hot rocks. It was like a real life game of hot potato!
We return to the weaving collective's dining area to eat. There is so much food, and we are grateful to be sharing it with our hosts. We try one of everything (except the chicken) and are fed some sort of delicious fried veggie cake too. The verdict: each potato type is indeed completely unique, and the meal is very starchy and dry. Being allowed to participate in such a culturally important and unique way of cooking is an experience to remember.
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