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Once on the Inca road and stairway, the going is much easier, with rock stairs built in all of the steep sections and three miradors  to stop and take in the view on the way to the fourth one on top. The first of these miradors is reached after hiking only six minutes. This mirador is a large boulder that looks like it was probably always naturally hanging on the cliff edge and when the road was made, paving stones were added to join the boulder with the main path. The second mirador is only two minutes further and is scarcely noticeable in the undergrowth, but for the distinctive retaining wall and widening of the path. The third mirador, three minutes further up the path, is a circular area built with a retaining wall of fitted stones (upper left photo). The next twenty minutes are spent hiking generally upwards, followed by a final steep section of two flights of stairs straight ahead, and then the path turns sharply to the left where one more steep section of stairs leads to a large mirador (the fourth ) on the pass with an overview of the entire Puncuyoc valley (lower right photo). On the way up this last section of steep stairs, look to the left to see a face in the pillar of rock (lower left photo). From this mirador, it is only five minutes to the junction pictured above (topmost picture with direction links), the path traverses north into the valley before heading downwards to the center where it splits into three directions.  |
