Chinchero is a bustling market town on Sunday and a sleepy Andean village the rest of the week.

Other than the market, and the stunning views of the grassy plains and icy mountains that surround the area, the main attraction is a colonial adobe church built on the foundations of an Inca palace for late-15th-century Tupac Yupanki, in what was once an Inca city.

The church, built in the early 1600’s, contains wonderful frescos that cover the entire ceiling which date back from the time the church was built. The towns plaza is the upper portion of the main plaza of the Inca city, and to one side, Inca ruins – some buildings and many terraces – run down the valley, destroyed but not built upon.
Photos below

Tags: chichero, cusco, incas, ruins, tupac yupanki