You are picked up in the morning from your Cochabamba hotel or hostel (airport pickup can also be arranged if you arrive in the morning) and we set off on a beautiful journey into the countryside. We pass by typical rural Andean villages, farmlands and the natural beauty of the Cochabamba area. We are driving aroudn 130 km to Inca Llajta - the largest and most important Inca site in Bolivia and a real off the beaten track experience seldom visited by tourists. The site was added to the UNESCO World heritage site tentative list in 2003.
The Incas moved into the Cochabamba valley because it offered great possibilities for agriculture and also as a launching point to try to move into the lower Amazon regions. Built around 1465 by the Inca Tupac Yupanqui, and later reconstructed by Inca Huayana Capac, to protect this ever expanding empire from attacks from the Amazon tribes it housed an Inca community until around 1525. There are similarities in the designs to many of the ruins in the Cusco area with the largest structure being a huge rectangle shaped building of 78 x 26 meters called a Kallanka. This was the largest known roofed building (although no roof now) in the whole Inca empire.
Other buildings in the complex include houses for women and for priests, administrative function buildings and storage buildings plus a principal plaza with sacrificial altar. In all there are close to fourty buildings and a defensive wall in the site.There is also evidence of astronomical towers with the incas being well known for their belief in astronomy. Nearby there is a 30 meter high waterfall which we will see as we look out over the valley. After the site visit we will visit the small colonial village of Chimboata and see how life in this sleepy town doesnt seem to have changed much over the years.