The Amphitheatre (Marcahuasi Hotel)

"Imagine yourself ascending kiska kumo
and the hut, from another world,
in Huacracocha with no way of camping
the Amphitheatre, nobody wants to get lost ..."

The majority of visitors that arrive at the plateau for the first time do it by the route of portachuelo (long route), which brings us to the Amphitheatre, better known as "Marcahuasi Hotel"

This is one of the entrances to the Amphitheatre... Welcome!

To spend a night in this place is unforgettable. The cold, the wind, and the moon, it inspires us to break the silence of the place with tunes that the Amphitheatre leaves behind ... I hope that Soctacure (the lightning God) pardons those happy singers, the inexperienced, and the first-timers.

Nobody can forget their first night in this Marcahuasi Hotel. It's a hotel with infinite stars, and a quiet company of "lovers" and "the indian" (petrified sculptures). A true stirring of passions, and of feelings that you can feel and experience only here.

"The night is escaping ...
but we all want to stay in the Amphitheatre.
The cold we leave behind ...
And the fear at these heights also disappeared."

This capricious opening is the favourite for all of the tourists for camping. Here they fulfilled a concert of which we will speak later. Right here end all types of conversations, and during periods of high tourism like in easter week and 28th of July the Amphitheatre is totally full.

The first arrivals to "Marcahuasi Hotel" have the privelege of choosing where to camp.

Some Peruvian tourists, and strangers to the Amphitheatre, after living this experience, say
"... to spend the night here, is to find yourself, away from the madness and the uneasiness that it produces. I believe that internally you find a peace ... despite the cold that there is in the Amphitheatre, still i don't regret it. The night here is beautiful ... it exceeds beautiful ..."


The mule transportation to get to the Amphitheatre is provided by the locals.

But also, this "Hotel ..." converts every time in a market where they sell food, soft drinks, and more besides, water, logs, and cooking implements [chamarascas], dung for the fire, and also something that they allow here in Marcahuasi. The mule transport from San Pedro de Casta to the Amphitheatre costs more than the journey from Lima to San Pedro de Casta! - prices that the tourism committee control. But the most serious is that in the Amphitheatre they are constructing a hut/kiosk as property of the community. They say that it is a form of payment for a debt of services that they provided to Daniel Ruzo; how capricious and opportunistic!

We, the tourist lovers of Marcahuasi, always arrive at the plateau to find something natural without change, nor owners that gain from this sacred place, and today converted in the 5th natural wonder of Perú.

I demand from my position that they respect this plateau, especially the rocks, and that they conserve the Amphitheatre exactly how it is, and how it should be always. The "hotel" is used by all visitors that enjoy the night, the cold, the wind, and the discovery with a generation that existed here, and the most important of all, the human warmth that concentrates in the Amphitheatre.

[Read the original blog post (in Spanish)]

Next part : A chilean in Marcahuasi.

Photos : John Ysrael Guevara