A day trip to Chinchero- Inca Ruins,Markets,Alpacas

Enroute to Moray/Maras , the Peruvian town of Chinchero is a short 40 minute drive from Cusco.
Chinchero has been in the limelight in the past few months due to an ongoing proposal, to construct an international airport here, so that the throngs of visitors coming in to visit Machu Pichu can fly in directly as opposed to the customary layover at Peru’s capital city Lima.

However, my primary interest in this little town lay in the processing techniques that the women here have been using for generations primarily on Alpaca wool; which they believe is one of the most versatile mediums to work with, owing to its unique properties such as being hypoallergenic, water-repelling, lightweight and being highly effective at protecting the wearer from the harsh cold winds common to the highlands.
Our van halted in front of a fairly modest looking building with a thatched roof and a wooden sign with the words Centro textile Kuska Llankas written in bold. As we entered the building, we were greeted by an array of colorful sweaters,shawls,blankets,caps,cloth bags and some clay souvenirs displayed on tables arranged to one corner of the spacious room.

Simple,narrow,wooden benches were arranged for the visitors with a central clearing where one of the women dressed in traditional Peruvian clothing stepped forwards to begin demonstrating the entire process that the wool was put through before the final product that we saw in the markets were put up for sale.
She introduced herself as Chincheska and began by explaining that they used a natural,biodegradable cleansing agent to clean the Alpaca wool.

She grated a Tuber/Root called Saqta into a clay basin with boiling water and as she stirred it ,it began foaming like soap/Shampoo .She then filtered the water using a sieve ; washed a piece of extremely dirty Wool and then laid it out to dry in the sun.She explained that the roots must be used within 3 days of harvesting or they go bad and that all the women in the village used the same natural shampoo to wash their hair which left their hair soft and silky.
The next step was to spin some wool that had been dried much earlier. Spinning is done using a wooden, drop spindle called the Pushqa. The wool is wrapped onto the spindle and slowly dropped to the ground with a gentle twisting movement, which teases out the fine yarn. Chincheska was spinning the yarn effortlessly and told us that she has been spinning since she was a child and it had become second nature to her and her peers, allowing them to do this while walking down the street or carrying on a conversation.

The yarn is then dyed into the vibrant colors that we tend to associate with Peru. The part that appealed most to me was that they used only natural dyes extracted from plants,roots,mineral and insects found in the Urubamba province.

The cleaned Alpaca wool being dyed into different colours.
The yarn is dropped into boiling water along-with the desired pigment/extract and a color fixer(such as lime,salt,Qolpa-a mineral or urine in some cases!!).

The conchinilla insects are found on cacti pads and dried out in the sun for the reddish purple pigment. 25 shades of red can be obtained by mixing activators such as lime to it.

Chicha morada-purple, Deep purple-Awayapilla leaves

The dyed yarn is then woven into cloth by the women with Back strap looms attached to their back, allowing them to maneuver the loom by leaning forward and backward.

The process itself was grueling and required tremendous effort,precision and technique so we were taken by surprise when Chincheska explained that that the designs or patterns that we find on the clothes are not random patterns but have a meaning. She explained that the designs woven, were different from one region to another and the Andean people could decipher the details such as where the cloth was woven and by whom .

The village of Chinchero for example is represented by 2 circles which symbolize the 2 lagoons around the area.Some of the patterns that tend to reoccur are the llama, the condor, the mountains,lagoons,the sun,corn,the medicinal plants that are used in the region.The patterns are used by the weaver to tell a story or a simple incident or their very own thoughts at that point of time since Quechua the language of the Quechua people does not have a script.

As I looked at the Shawl in my hands, I realized that had i not witnessed the process, I would not have truly understood the value and the significance of the piece of art that lay in front of me that originated in a windswept village ,still following their traditions dating back to Incan times.

Other things to see in Chinchero:
1.The market-Tuesdays ,Thursdays and Sundays
2.The Church that stands over the remains of the Inca temple was built by the Spaniards in 1607 and is open to visitors from 8 am-5:30 pm everyday and requires a ticket to enter.

Tickets:

Cusco tourist ticket-130 soles-> Access to the plaza and the ruins (Valid for 10 days-included attractions in and around cusco)
Partial ticket -70 soles -> Access to Chinchero,Pisac,Ollantaytambo and Moray( Valid for 2 days)