Officially open from dawn to dusk, we hear from our tour guide that if you came instead at 4 a.m. on a November day, you’d likely find Andean shamans taking ritual baths and showers at Tambomachay. Water has run since Inca times through aqueducts for +/- 8 miles to these fountains, and also as agricultural irrigation to nearby terraced farm lands.
The name Tambomachay speaks to its function, our tour guide** explains. “Tambo” means resting place and the “machay” refers to lookout towers. The vast network of Inca roads that connected one part of its empire to another had many such resting points for the runners who went from place to place to keep communications open.
Click here to read more Picture this Post travel stories by Amy Munice with photography by Peter Kachergis.
**Tour guide Marco Antonio Bustamante Dorado.
