Two days Bike Loop Cusco Ccorca Ccarhuis Occopata -

Around Cusco there are plenty of places to explore. We take two days off with Isa and Katja to go south west, to an area called Ccorca in our bike loop. You can watch a video of our advenure here:

Data Sheet

Link to track: Bike Loop Cusco- Ccorca -Ccarhuis
Distance and elevation 63 km (+1411m, -1496m)
Duration: 1 or 2 days, we did two days and we camped
Difficulty: medium (by the altitude and small roads)
Info: places to eat and hostels in Ccorca. Supermarkets with a limited assortment in Ccorca and Ccarhuis. The altitude where the route begins is 3400 meters
Map
Bike Route Map Cusco – Ccorca – Ccarhuis – Occopata – Cusco

Day 1 – From Cusco to Ccarhuis

We leave Cusco through Pukín and the neighborhood “Valle del Sol” and we discovered that this is the way to a large landfill that collects all the garbage in Cusco. We do the first hours of the route surrounded by trucks and dust!

We also discovered that Cusco is actually recycles: there are private centers where they open the bags and extract the plastic and paper.

Once past the landfill, we continue up a road with incredible views of the surrounding mountains, until we reach 4000 meters, to go down towards Simona, access to one of the few apus or mountain deities that are female, the Apu Mama Simona.

We continue down through a valley until we find remains of the ancient Inca fishermen’s trail, which linked Cusco and the sea through the network of Inca roads Qhapaq Ñan.

A little further on we arrive at Ccorca, where there are spectacular cliffs, with cave paintings from 1500 BC, tombs, skulls. A magical and very impressive place!

We recover energy in Ccorca eating, and we say goodbye to Isa, who has to work and will return to Cusco.

With Katja we go to Ccarhuis, and a few children race with her, they are delighted to see a gringa on a bike! These boys and girls from Ccarhuis take 1.5 hours each day to walk to school, more or less what it takes us by bike!

In Ccarhuis we camped on the soccer field and spent a pleasant time with the boys and girls interested in these foreigners visiting a small town that lives from cattle raising and raising “cuyes” or guinea pigs.

Day 2 – From Ccarhuis to Cusco

The next day we continue climbing to 4000 meters again, and we go down to the town of Occopata, where we find the road that goes down to Santiago and Cusco, where we celebrate the start with a good meal in Casilda.

Great two-day excursion, Cusco region is amazing! You can see a few photos below: