The Province of Paucartambo brings together notable cultural events and landscapes at the transition between the Andes and the Amazon region. When planning your trip, it is worth first organizing the places you want to visit and how to reach them: a festival takes place on fixed dates in July, the route to Mirador Tres Cruces has two stages, and visiting Parque Nacional del Manu requires using a travel operator.

Culture and dates in Paucartambo

Pueblo de Paucartambo lies in a valley where the Río Mapacho and Río Qenqomayu meet. The town was recognized by the World Tourism Organization as one of the “Best Tourism Villages” of 2023. The Festividad de la Virgen del Carmen is also an important occasion: it takes place in the province every year from July 15 to 18 and attracts worshippers as well as domestic and international tourists. The dances of Pueblo de Paucartambo accompany the procession of the Virgen del Carmen. If you would like to include the festival days in your trip, you can plan your stay around these recurring dates.

Another annual religious occasion is the main feast day of the Santuario Del Señor De Exaltacion De Sani on September 14. It includes penitential pilgrimages on foot from the Comunidad de Chacabamba in the district of Huancarani to the sanctuary. This occasion combines a specific date with a walking pilgrimage, making it a different travel option from the July festivities in Pueblo de Paucartambo.

Inca Architecture and Community Tourism

The Watoqto Archaeological Complex is located in the district of Colquepata. This monument of Inca architecture has three areas: Sector Ceremonial, Sector Saqsaywaman and Sector Pachatuzan. A pre-Hispanic paved Inca road leads to the complex and continues branching off toward Qosñipata and Manu. The monument and the road thus offer two distinct insights into the province’s historic cultural landscape.

Since 2006, the Comunidad Nativa Queros Wachiperi has been developing Indigenous community tourism in the district of Kosñipata. Its offerings include visits to the Hinkiori petroglyphs and traditional cuisine. Visitors interested in this combination of cultural heritage and culinary experiences will find a different focus here than at the archaeological areas of Watoqto or the religious festival dates.

Mirador Tres Cruces and Parque Nacional del Manu

Mirador Tres Cruces is located in the district of Kosñipata at an elevation of about 3,700 meters and offers a viewpoint over the transition between the ecosystems of the Andes and the Amazon region. At sunrise, an optical phenomenon appears above an extensive sea of clouds covering the Amazon basin of Parque Nacional del Manu: it can create the impression of several suns or a luminous spectrum. The national park’s high-Andean sector includes cloud forests, grasslands, orchids, pumas and spectacled bears.

To visit Parque Nacional del Manu, you must use a travel operator authorized by SERNANP. Check this requirement before your trip, as operational requirements may change. This lets you treat a visit to the protected area as a separate planning item, rather than combining it with other destinations or routes without checking first.

Getting There and Choosing Accommodation

The stated route from Cusco to Pueblo de Paucartambo covers 105.5 kilometers by tourist bus on a paved road and takes 2 hours and 15 minutes. A separate route is described for Mirador Tres Cruces: from Pueblo de Paucartambo, travel 26 kilometers by public bus on a paved road to Abra Acjanaco. The next leg covers 14 kilometers in a private vehicle on a passable unpaved road. The sections differ in both mode of transport and road surface, so you should consider each leg separately when planning this journey.

One route to the Río Manu passes through Paucartambo and then continues via Acjanaco, the cloud forest, Pilcopata, Atalaya and the Río Alto Madre de Dios. The routes described have different focuses and do not constitute one standard transfer itinerary. When choosing accommodation, it therefore helps to first decide what you want to travel for: for example, the July festivities, the September pilgrimage, the viewpoint or a route toward the Río Manu.

Discover more destinations: Pillcopata, Province of Calca, Aguas Calientes, Espinar, Pisac, Quispicanchi.

Go to the main travel overview: Cuzco.