It is one thing to visit the archaeological complex at Raqchi but something quite different to spend a few days in the village of Raqchi with villagers who explain how they host guests and their every day experiences.

For many years the people of Raqchi watched buses full of tourists as they arrived in the Main Square of their village; the visitors alighted, went to the ruins, took photographs and listened to their guides then left. Thus the visitors could see the Inca ruins while the locals saw their chances of development disappear. A year ago things started to change. A group if villagers made contact with the Cusco/ Puno Corridor Project and agreed upon a training program on matters of cultural identity. Then came training on ceramic restoration, and it should be said in passing that in Inca times ceramics were considered among the Empire's finest products because of the quality that volcanic sand gave to the clay. The next step was to build toilets for the tourists, having watched them in desperate need having come from Cusco or Puno without having stopped for relief on the way. The success of these toilets - which are excellent - conviced the inhabitants of Raqchi to provide further services for tourists and that was the start of the living tourism project which now astonishes locals and others alike.

THE VILLAGE
Raqchi is situated 120 km south of the city of Cusco, on the way to Puno. It is part of the district of San Pedro in the province of Canchis. The village is on the right bank of the River Vilcanota at an altitude of 3480 m.a.s.l. The community is made up of eighty families dedicated to ceramics and, now tourism. All the community members own very small parcels of land on which they grow potatoes, maize, oca, tarwi, quinua, olluco and wheat for their own consumption. Fruit is also grown in the lower reaches of the village land. Strictly speaking the people of Raqchi are not subsistence farmers; they belong to the rural middle class. Because of the proximity of Raqchi to the road linking Sicuani and Cusco, the majority of its inhabitants have higher education qualifications: they are teachers, tourist guides or graduates in computing. Perhaps this level of education combined with strong self-esteem and respect for the Inca ruins in the village are why the villagers have decided to restore their traditional costumes, ceramics, foodstuffs, language (Quechua), their connection with the temple of Wiracocha and their ancient religion. And they have done so primarily as a means of providing visitors with a form of living museum where the traditional and the modern live happily side by side: the problems are left for the anthropologist, not for the friends of Raqchi.

THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL REMAINS
The Raqchi archaeological complex (also called Cacha) is centered around the ruins of a magnificent temple erected by the Incas, according to the chronicler Betanzos in honor of the god Kon Tici Viracocha Pachayachachic. Garcilazo claimed that the temple was built by Inca Wiracocha and that it contains an extraordinary quantity of gold. Cieza de Leon states that Inca Yupanqui was responsible for the construction of the great living quarters. What is certain is that the temple is a masterpiece of architecture in stone and mud. It is 92 meters long by 25 wide and has two entrances. There is an impressive central wall 12 meters high with its lower courses of stone and upper ones of adobe. This wall has ten interior passages. The stones bear the remains of a unique form of decoration: religious symbols such as the chakana are picked out in colors from the shape of the stones themselves. On either side if the wall can be seen the bases of 22 cylindrical columns - also unique - supporting an adobe construction.

In addition to the temple, the complex contains living quarters for the Inca nobles and a half-moon shaped artificial lake, also built by the Incas. The Inca Trail from Collasuyo crosses the site and disappears towards the south, cutting through a large protective wall surrounding Raqchi. The large colcas or food stores to the east are also impressive, as is a ceremonial area close to the springs where those entering the temple were purified beforehand.

A LIVING VISIT
It is one thing to visit the archaeological site with a professional guide who lives in Cusco and quite another to do so guided by a villager from Raqchi. Sixto, a young teacher, gave us valuable information in very personalized style: "we can see how, at the Winter solstice, the sun and moon are face to face" or "our grandfathers have taught us that they hag to purify themselves in these springs because the water is so cold it drives away is so cold it drives away all dark thoughts". After our visit to the complex the community members took us for lunch to lunch to the home of Mrs. Ambrosia. There, at a table in the open air, we ate quinua soup, alpaca meat, pureed tarwi, potatoes; tasty dishes dating from ancient times which were part of an experience that was already beginning to seem genuine and very different from what we had known hitherto.

Later on, to help digest the foot, Mrs Esther took us to a vantage point by a short but steep path. There Esther - a graduate in computing and information technology - explained the complex using a map prepared by her husband Rene, a schoolmaster were to pass the night - Esther's own home. There are currently thirteen other homes like hers adapted to take tourists, making a total capacity of thirty beds. Our room is cosy, very clean and agreeable. Next door we have a full and equally immaculate bathroom. We made ourselves comfortable and at about seven in the evening Rene, Exaltation, Esther, Ambrosia, Julia, Maximo and Raul came looking for us. With a fire lit in the middle of the patio and to the accompaniment of flutes and other instruments we listened to old songs such ah the asispayana and cashua, combined with carnival themes and other rituals dedicated to the pachamama and the Apus Auquisa and Kinsachata.

WALKING AND POTTERY
The following morning we walked to the extinct volcano kinsachata, one of the Apus of the people of Raqchi. For an hour we climbed through smallholdings, we crossed the wall and looked across a woodland view of capuli trees. We arrived at the crater of the volcano. Here our companions collected and sieved volcanic sand. Only then did we realize that the stones under our feet on the way were volcanic tuff produced by the population of Raqchi. On the way back Edith prepared a dish of potatoes with fresh cheese and an infusion of muña.

Before leaving we went to the home of Maximo, one of the young ceramists of Raqchi. Here we saw the complete process of making high quality pieces, traditional utilitarian ware such as the rake in which chicha was kept together with modern pieces such as bread bins, beer pitcher and serving plates: and decorative Inca iconography symbolizing the three worlds: the lower, the middle and the upper worlds represented by the serpent, the puma and the condor. As we were about to go Exaltacion, the local school teacher, explained it all clearly for us: "We have asked MINDES to help us by considering our village a living museum. The Vice Minister was astonished: 'amazing! Everyone asks for stoves and pans and you ask for this'. The fact is that we want to live on the basis of who we area, respecting other cultures as they should respect ours". If any traveler wants to understand and enjoy an authentic experience of community life, go to Raqchi, the archaeological complex is not sufficient.