Experiential tourism in Willoq and Patacancha

How to get there: The community of Willoq is 78 km (1 h 30 min) from Cusco by asphalted road.
Location: Province of Urubamba, Cusco, belongs to Ollantaytambo.
Height: 3400 masl.
Activities: Culture, archeology, gastronomy, nature, crafts.
Flora and Fauna: 60 birds and more than 700 species of plants.

According to some writers, the population of Willoq and Patacancha is a very particular ethnic group, maintaining a direct line of the last Incas, which does corroborate by their same surnames as Sinchi Pukha, Cusipaucar, Tupha, and others.

The Living Tourism in Willoq and Patacancha is close to the town of Ollantaytambo; this place is one of the most privileged places to get to know the Andean Tradition. The people of Willoq and Patacancha meet with visitors to integrate society that respects them as equals, which is why it is not surprising that they scatter around the town’s square and streets of Ollantaytambo.

The inhabitants of these communities maintain their current culture. One of the specialties of these descendants of the Incas is their textiles; their clothing, as is often the case with a series of community enterprises, has eye-catching colors.

Patacancha is the stimulus to open up to experiential tourism, which arises from having long observed how travelers came to a destination near Ollantaytambo. In this case, they spent these few hours. They then retired in their buses without having had the opportunity to know A true treasure trove of handmade textiles and how they do it, on the one hand, and the other, excluding poor communities from the benefits of good tourism.

The Andes people then began to discover in the first place that their textiles, in general, are valuable capital that needs to imply recovered to put it in value and, at the same time, that the world is emitting tourism values the expressions of ancestral culture alive.

Travelers who appreciate the quality of popular art visit these communities because they know they will find pieces of excellent clothing, very different from the massive product exposed in the markets of the cities of Cusco.

In addition, in Willoq and Patacancha, you will be able to meet Andes people who have become aware of the value of the traditions of the town and are willing to share them with much friendliness and joy. In scenarios that combine a mountainous nature of exceptional beauty with architectural elements like Andenerias and houses raised with adobe and roofs with tile or ichu.

When one embarks on the trip to Willoq, one can visit the villages of Rumira Sondormayo and Q’elkanka, also of weavers. From the top, Willoq appears deployed in an endless flora, wild and cultivated, at the foot of the great mountains of the Andes.

Visitors can feel a different city atmosphere when one is near the village. After all, you breathe pure nature air that is very pleasant in that place. The human presence adds the intensity of red and black that dominate the traditional dress. For that reason, the common name was given to these Inca descendants, “Huayruros,” because their dresses outstripped the color of the seed of good luck.

The clothes are gorgeous and colorful shawls woven in different shades of earth, chullos decorated with beads and buttons, embroidered monteras, ribbons, braids, and hands. Everything in Willoq has the harmonic movement that demands the textile, composing a world of color and life. It will be an unforgettable experience in experiential tourism.

Holes, balls, looms, pots with boiling dyes, dye plants, and raw fibers all attract the attention of a tourist who visits it, really pass from the best to know the customs and traditions of this town, experiential tourism.

The villagers welcome the visitor with songs and dances; it is striking that some wear white clothing with long sleeves of the same color.

Concerning its dance, it is wiphala, which imitates the movement of the huallata (the Andean goose). At the same time, it means Inca joy and nation. This culture introduces the tourist to a completely different world with a reality beyond our imagination.

In turn, the weavers do very well organized in a textile center of 260 artisans from other communities.

This tradition comes from generation to generation since the weavers learn from their mothers and teach their daughters in this same office.

The men perform similar roles, many of whom are porters on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, and many complete their workdays in this way. These men are solid characters and very well-fed, thanks to the green leaf of coca that Makes his texture resistant to the hard work involved in being a porter.

Every day of the week, the weavers’ place is active, but it is preferable to visit it on Saturdays when they have prepared to receive the travelers, where they can share ideas and customs.

Patacancha is thirty minutes from Willoq; there is also a weavers association. On average, women only speak Quechua and, like their neighbors, weave wonders such as llicllas, chalinas, shawls, bags, and blankets, a fineness That the natural fiber (sheep or alpaca) can give the texture of silk to all its textile fabrics.

It is imperative to know that the inputs to give color and life to their fabrics are obtained from plants in the area that provide accurate colors for their craftwork; their designs have a unique meaning.

Cusco has another option for experiential tourism, Raqchi, another alternative for your experiential tourism in Cusco.