About a 90-minute ride outside Ollantaytambo, towards the jungle, and significantly higher in the Hills you will find this indigenous village of Huilloc, where all the people live as they have for the past 500 years. You can't just drive up and go to this place. You would need a tour guide, like Carlos Sotomayor or someone who is connected to these families, because they're very private and this is their life, in the mountains living simply, growing, weaving, making, cooking, providing everything they need with only a small amount of trade or barter for those few things that they can't provide for themselves. Led by the 92-year old patriarch, who is also the village shaman, this traditional, tightly-knitted group of families adheres to the old ways in their simple and successful life. We were lucky enough to be welcomed in, dressed in their native wear, share a feast with them, have the pleasure of a shamanic ceremony for our protection and good travels, and enjoy the absolute pleasure of their company. It was one of the highlights of our trip.

Huilloc was one of the several amazing experiences I had in Perú, and after visiting this town I realised there is a half day tour to it, but in my case I got there after a succesion of fortunate events . First day in Cusco and wandering in downtown, a bright blue door with the sign Irqi Yachay "Museum of art by Andean Children" caught our attention. There was art work of children of andean communities and a textile exhibition of andean weavings and traditional clothing, beautiful! The children´s art is part of a program to visit and teach them through art. We found it so great that asked if they needed any volunteers for the next town visiting, and the answer was yes, but you have to speak quechua, which we didn´t. We insisted asking him if there was any other option of visiting towns to help with whatever was possible, the idea was to get involved in how they live and give a hand with everyday life. He and his wife are part of several activities related with rural tourism and one of them is called Living with the Inkas, where they arrange with a family in an Andean town to receive tourists (no more than 3 at the same time) and host them for a few days, the money that is paid goes 100% to the family. After several emails, arranged dates and went the 3 nights. We meet our host family in Cusco at a rural fair that was done those days. Victoria (the mom) only speaks quechua, she was with Yumi (the baby), at the fair there was other people of Huilloc that helped in spanish giving us some info, after that we started using "signs language" for the next days to communicate with her and her son Enoch. We took a colectivo from Cusco to Urubamba, another from there to Ollantaytambo and there we wait Julian for about 1 1/2 hour, time that we used to see better the town and visit the locals goods market . Julian is the husband, he speaks spanish but saw him only in the afternoons after work. From Ollantaytambo we departed getting dark, so couldn´t see the route or landscape of where we were going, just feeling that we were on a really bumpy dirt road, going uphill, and stoping sometimes to pick up locals going to Huilloc as well. The first that hit me was how cold it was there .I live in the south of Chile, so I am used to cold temperatures, and for Salkantay trek everyone told us it was freezing cold the first night, and we felt it ok, so we thought Huilloc couln´t be worse. Also were told that we didn´t need to bring any equipment because we were staying in a house, so I left the sleeping bag in Cusco, you can´t imagine how much missed it. There are so many things that reminded me at every moment how different life is here from what anybody living in a city would consider the "normal". For example that everybody uses the traditional cloth of the town (there is an everyday cloth and the festivities special outfit), so even when it is freezing cold, women use skirt, sandals, no socks, no scarf, and I looked like a freaking Michelin. After the first day I realised that Julian is not an average or typical Huilloc´s person, he uses outdoor clothing, he owns a van (old, but probably the only one in town), he speaks spanish and a little english, his house has a semi-closed toilet and a 2 level house (see pics after), so even when he has his festivities cloth and he knows all the traditions and history of Huilloc, his work with constant contact with tourists changed him (not in a bad way) . Usually families work the field, have crops and have some cattle, walking everyday with the animals about 1-2 hrs to the grassfield and coming back in the afternoon, why the long walk? Because the small farms they own are not next to the houses, so animals are kept in a barn in the houses and taken everyday to eat to the farms. Julian work is to transport people, locals or tourists, an Victoria doesn´t work the land, she stays at home. The constructions are very simple, but solid, kitchen separated in a different construction from the "barn" and from the rooms, so 3 constructions at least with a common patio was typical. We spent the days helping different people we met in the town having meals with them, we noticed that the governement makes strong campaigns to improve nutrition, the diet is very low in chicken or beef, and very high in carbs, and each family receives all sort of carbs and powder milk for free from the government. So one good thing of the town was that they were constructing a fish farm for the community. I suppose that Huilloc got used to see tourists, because they are very open with people that wants to give a hand, the good thing is that they live their own life , not expecting anything from tourists, so if you ask to help them you are well received, if you decide just to walk aroud and observe, nobody will even talk to you. We wanted to help, so since Victoria stayed mainly at home, first morning we decided to walk to town to see if we could do something. Met a very nice family, my friend went with the men to help with the construction of the fish farm and I stayed with the women, helping with selection of corn that was just harvested. I am a textile designer so I was very curious of knowing more about their textiles, Vilma showed me how they make the yarns, with what they dye them (all natural), showed me the loom they use, and I was marveled with everything. Later I walked with her to their farm to walk back the animals, her baby had 3 months and she carried her everywhere in her back. Victoria also showed me her loom, she gave me a tiny one an we spent a couple of hours weaving, while children played and my firiend read a book, and we had eucalyptus tea. After that we all walked to one of ruins we saw in a previous walk, that is how we spent our saturday afternoon Well, this is how we passed hour days, and on Sunday we went to the market , a flat grassfield where people gather to buy-sell things, women talking and laughing, kids eating sweet treats like ice cream, cookies and a sort of local popcorn, at this point I was feeling pretty comfortable with the day routine, so it was so weard to see vans with tourists arriving to the market, taking photos of everything and saying "OMG! Its sooo amazing!" and leaving in a rush. If I felt them like intruders I can´t even imagine how the people there feel every sunday. Next morning we headed back to Ollantaytambo where we had a coffee and a sandwich and feeling so out of place. For me, this was definetely a breathtaking experience, not because of the scenery ( I did it after Salkantay-Llactapata trek and Machu Picchu) but because of the contrast of life styles, made me rethink how modern life make us miss the order of priorities sometimes, and also that even when this people live in basic conditions that can be so easily improved, there is a thin line between being helpful respecting who they are to impose things. I have the email of Miluska that is the person of the museum that arranged our stay in Huilloc, yachamilus@hotmail.com . We paid directly to Julian, it was 50 soles a day for each with meals + transfer Ollantaytambo - Huilloc - Ollantaytambo, and can´t remember exactly how much was the transport.