a day in Tipon

Last weekend we finally made our way to the Tipon ruins.  These ruins are located about 30 minutes down the road from San Jeronimo, very close to Cuzco.  We had heard that they were fine – but nothing special, but we LOVED them.  First of all – they were empty – it was as if we had them to ourselves.  Second – it is the rainy season so everything is green, green, green.  Third – the weather was to-die-for-beautiful, as you will see in ALL of these photos.

The “town” of Tipon is famous for it’s CUY – or Guinea Pig in English.  If you want the best Guinea Pig in town – here is where you go.  So, Kenzo and I decided to get some cuy lunch before our 1.5 hour hike up to the ruins.  Didn’t take too many photos there, but here are two of Kenzo (who literally ate ALL of the meat off of the bones).  PS – if you are one of the 10 people who will be visiting us in the next three months and are interested/willing/daring-enough to try the cuy – just let us know and we’ll take you down to Tipon.

As we began our hike up to the ruins, we enjoyed seeing several locals and their homes:

A view as we continued going up:

And then, we made it to the ruins . . .

. . .  and as I said before, they were empty.  And kind of sacred-feeling.  It was raining, but perfect.



We decided to hike up to another part of the ruins and found a really cool structure.  Since we almost never get a guide (one time out of maybe 14 ruins we’ve seen), Kenzo and I tend to make up what we think everything was used for.  Here, we decided was the library/thinking room:

We then saw some intriguing signs to Pukara (which we did not know what it was) that we could not resist following.  These signs lead us on a beautiful trail littered with green plants and blooming flowers:



And then we arrived to Pukara, and they were way bigger ruins that we ever expected:

After about three hours of exploring, we decided to make our decent.  As we were headed to the main road to pick up a bus, we saw some locals repeatedly stepping into a large puddle of carrots with their feet.  We think they were washing them?  I could not get too close because they don’t love it when you take their pictures, but here is what we saw:

As well as piles of red onions:

And a new friend!

Awesome, awesome Sunday spent enjoying this beautiful country that we’re fortunate enough to live in!

This entry was posted in Our Life in Cuzco, Travel. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to a day in Tipon

  1. Amanda says:

    I am LOVING your blog! I will be in Peru at the end of March helping out at the Cervicusco clinic! Seeing all of your pictures & reading this blog has made me SO excited!!

  2. Melody Baumhover says:

    Great pictures! I am in Cuzco for the next couple weeks, and work in Huacarpay (about 10 mins by bus past Tipon). I was wondering if you could tell me how to get from the bus stop in Tipon (the highway) up to the ruins? and then those other ruins look amazing too! Any help would be great. Thanks!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Connect with Facebook