Quillabamba Coffee and Cacao

Quillabamba sits at about a thousand metres in the Urubamba valley below Machu Picchu, where the river has left the mountains and the climate is tropical, and the province of La Convención grows coffee, cacao, coca, achiote, citrus and tropical fruit. Its political history is significant: the haciendas of this valley, worked under labour-rent arrangements that left tenants with almost nothing, were the site of the peasant union organising led by Hugo Blanco in the early 1960s, and the land occupations here were a direct cause of the agrarian reform that Velasco's government enacted in 1969. Cooperatives formed from that reform still process the coffee and cacao. Farms and cooperatives around the town run visits, and chocolate is produced locally. The road from Cusco crosses the Abra Málaga at 4,300 metres before dropping thousands of metres into the valley.

What you actually see

• The cooperatives - coffee and cacao processing by organisations formed after 1969.
• The crops - coffee, cacao, achiote, citrus and tropical fruit in one valley.
• The land reform history - the union organising that preceded the 1969 reform.
• The road - the Abra Málaga at 4,300 metres, then a huge descent.

When to go

April to October is drier. Coffee harvest runs roughly April to August. Two to four days including the six-hour road journey from Cusco.

Honest expectations

Six hours from Cusco over a high pass on a road prone to landslides. Hot and humid in the valley after the cold of Cusco. Farm visits need arranging. Coca is a legal crop here and is visible in the fields, which surprises some visitors.

Nearby

Santa María and the Machu Picchu back route are up the valley; Cusco is over the pass.