Inland along the Río Cañete

Direct buses from Lima for the Cañete valley leave daily around 1500 with

, whose terminal is in the dodgy Grau area of the city. The buses go to various destinations in the valley on different days of the week. Most pass through

, the stop for Tupe, and on Thursday go direct to

. Otherwise go to Cañete and ask about the service with

to

, via

,

,

and

.

From Cañete, a paved road runs inland, mostly beside the Río Cañete, through

, which has a market on Saturday, Sunday and Monday (good for every type of household item), and Nuevo Imperial to the

.

Lunahuaná consists of a town and several districts (

) strung along the valley. They are totally dependent on the Río Cañete for irrigation and for the tourist attractions of rafting and kayaking. Beyond the reach of the water, the surrounding countryside is completely barren but not without its own appeal. In early morning and at dusk the hills are painted in infinite shades of grey, pink and brown, framed by the clear blue sky, fertile green valley and rushing water.

Eight kilometres before Lunahuaná is

, the ruins of an Inca city. A new road cuts right through the middle of the site, which dominates the valley and

that run down into it. Incawasi is said to have been a replica of Cuzco, with its divided trapezoidal plaza. The site was built outside the fertile zone of the valley and its rough walls blend in perfectly with the barren hills.

is the first

reached after Incawasi. Here stand the ruins of the first church of Lunahuaná. In summer, when the river is high, rafting trips start from just below the plaza. In the low river season a temporary footbridge crosses the river to

. Two kilometres further on is

, the area's

whitewater rafting centre; there are several agencies to choose from. Other adventure tourism activities include paragliding and there is an artificial wall for climbing. At San Jerónimo, a poor but dramatic dirt road runs 40 km up to the small Andean village of

(3190 m).

town (40 km from Cañete) has an 18th-century church on the plaza. Opposite the west door, at the top of the plaza, are the Banco de la Nación and Municipalidad. There are several restaurants in town and in the surrounding

, some offering rafting. After the town of Lunahuaná (40 km from Cañete), the road continues unpaved to Huancayo up in the sierra . Beyond

and Uchupampa

it crosses the Río Cañete to

. A little further on is a

(suspension bridge). Across the road bridge turn right to the village or left to the pre-Inca remains of

. The site is not signposted; ask directions. Miguel Casas Sánchez in Catapalla can guide to these ruins.

It is interesting to visit the bodegas (wine cellars) in the valley and try the wine. The best known is

(T01-284 1206) in Condoray, where you can try

, wine, manzanilla and

(a grape juice concentrate). A good time to visit is during February and March when you can see the traditional methods of treading the grapes by foot to the beat of the drum. Other bodegas in Condoray include:

(T01-437 8892), beside Hostal Río Alto;

, by La Laguna restaurant, and

(T01-437 3187). Also try

(T01-460 7698) in Uchupampa, beside the Hotel Embassy and bodegas

, in Catapalla, a five-minute walk from the suspension bridge. This last is the most rustic and authentic

in the valley and produces an excellent

. It offers a free tour and has a restaurant, open at weekends. Recommended.

Beyond Lunahuaná the road ascending the Cañete Valley leaves the narrow flood plain and runs through a series of

-lined gorges. It passes through

,

and

before entering the

. The market town of

, with basic accommodation, is 5 km off this road. The next village is

, a good base for exploring the area. There is a basic

with a restaurant here and you may be able to catch transport to other villages with workers from the

. If you have your own car, you can go wherever you want, but the roads are poor and you should seek the advice of someone who knows the region well. The people are friendly but you need to speak Spanish. Two hours' walk west from Llapay (one hour by car) is the village of

, from where a further two hours' trekking leads to the pre-Inca ruins of

.

Further upstream, the valley narrows to an exceptionally tight canyon, with a hairy road squeezed between nothing but rock and rushing water. At

the road forks: north, following the Río Cañete deeper into the reserve to

and

, and east, where a steep climb leads to mine workings near the 4600-m pass, beyond which the road drops to Huancayo.

North of Alís, the upper valley is one of the most beautiful and amazing of all Peru's coastal river valleys, on a par with the Colca Valley. Above Huancaya the river passes through high Andean terrain and descends through a seemingly endless series of incredibly attractive, absolutely clear, turquoise pools and lakes, interrupted by cascades and whitewater rapids. In some pools, huge clumps of tortora reed sway gently and in all there are prolific numbers of trout and abundant birdlife. Large parts of the valley are inaccessible in this section but marvellous day walks can be made upriver from Huancaya and 30 km further on at

. At both there are also attractive old colonial bridges across the river.

Culturally, the valley is fascinating for its dying indigenous languages and perhaps the best pre-Columbian terracing anywhere in Peru.

, reached on a six-hour walk from Catahuasi, is home to the Jaqaru people, distant cousins to the Aymara of Bolivia and southern Peru. Astonishingly, the Jaqaru have managed to keep alive their traditions and language, which may be the key to unravelling the ultimate origins of the Aymara languages. Tupe's older women still wear traditional red and black dress, though a modern tartan-style variant is taking over among most younger women. Dark red headscarves also abound, and for festivals they still wear

(traditional dress pins), identical to those depicted on colonial drawings of Inca women's dress. The village is overlooked by the almost sheer rock-face of Tupinachaka, complete with ancient rock paintings.

is also a linguistic final refuge. A very few aged speakers of the local form of Quechua are to be found in a beautiful, old village of steep streets. Some houses here have the same structure as the reconstructed Inca houses at Machu Picchu, with steeply sloping thatched roofs much longer and lower on one side than on the other. Good times to visit are for the fiestas at Carnival (beware the water bombs and flour or talcum powder attacks!), for the irrigation channel cleaning in May, or for the town fiesta in August. The valley's sides are covered with

in a sweeping curve of several kilometres. There are scenic hikes further up the valley beyond the seasonal lake below the village. Laraos is a 1½-hour walk from Llapay, or there is a daily combi from Llapay at 1100.