On our last day in Cuzco we decided to visit the Inca site of Tipon, located 14 miles from the city. As we didn’t want to do a tour we decided to take a collectivo instead. The journey lasted around an hour and a half and cost us just over 1 sole each. The collectivo however, only goes as far as the entrance to the town, from here it would be a good 2 hour walk as it’s all uphill, so we opted for a taxi at a cost of 5 soles.
The road to the site is currently under renovation so the taxi dropped us off at the old Inca trail. This is a steep stepped climb of around 45 minutes to get to the actual site. Despite the hard climb it is worth it for the views.
Tipon itself is a beautiful site filled with farming terraces, long staircases and water channels carved in bare stone.
Each level has pretty ornamental waterfalls and towards the top there is a main waterfall from where the large water system starts. Apparently, Tipon is the largest and most complete Inca hydraulic system currently known.
The site is large enough to easily spend a couple of hours walking around, and if you’re up for it you can also hike further up the hill to the Pitopuqyo cemetery.
To save money we walked back to the main junction which took us about 45 minutes. Once at the Pan-American you can get on pretty much any collectivo as they all seem to head towards Cusco. However, they have different drop off points, so its worth asking before getting on board.
