Putucusi (possibly from

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several Indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, an Indigenous South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language ...

''phutu''

bud In botany, a bud is an undeveloped or Plant embryogenesis, embryonic Shoot (botany), shoot and normally occurs in the axil of a leaf or at the tip of a Plant stem, stem. Once formed, a bud may remain for some time in a dormancy, dormant conditi ...

, ''-q'' a

suffix In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns and adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Suffixes can ca ...

, ''k'usi'' a cucurbit species, a small

zucchini Zucchini (; : ''zucchini'' or ''zucchinis''), courgette () or ''Cucurbita pepo'' is a summer squash, a Vine, vining herbaceous plant whose fruit are harvested when their immature seeds and Fruit anatomy#Epicarp, epicarp (rind) are still soft a ...

or ''

Cucurbita pepo ''Cucurbita pepo'' is a cultivated plant of the genus ''Cucurbita''. It yields varieties of winter squash and pumpkin, but the most widespread varieties belong to the subspecies ''Cucurbita pepo'' subsp. ''pepo'', called summer squash. It has b ...

'',Diccionario Quechua - Español - Quechua, Academía Mayor de la Lengua Quechua, Gobierno Regional Cusco, Cusco 2005: ''phutu'' - ''s. Ramillete de flores.'' ''k'usi'' - ''s. Bot. (Cucúrbita sp.) Calabacín pequeño. Planta de la familia de las cucurbitáceas, utilizada en la alimentación, andina.'' "budding zucchini (or ''Cucurbita pepo'')") is a round-shaped mountain located on the opposite side (northeast) of the

Urubamba River The Urubamba River or Vilcamayo River (possibly from Quechua ''Willkamayu'', for "sacred river") is a river in Peru. Upstream it is called Vilcanota River (possibly from Aymara ''Willkanuta'', for "house of the sun"). Within the La Convención ...

Machu Picchu Machu Picchu is a 15th-century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of southern Peru on a mountain ridge at . Often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", it is the most familiar icon of the Inca Empire. It is located in the ...

in the

Cusco Region Cusco, also spelled Cuzco (; ), is a department and region in Peru and is the fourth-largest department in the country, after Madre de Dios, Ucayali, and Loreto. It borders the departments of Ucayali on the north; Madre de Dios and Puno ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. Reaching approximately above sea level at its peak, the mountain offers epic views of Machu Picchu and the surrounding Urubamba River valley. "Putu Cusi" has been described by Quechua-speaking guides as "Happy Mountain". According to Glosb
Glosbe online Quechua-English dictionary
"Kusi" means "happy", and "Putuq" translates to "trapezoid". As the feature could be seen as a trapezoidal mountain that would align with this translation. It is important to recognize that Quechua has several dialects. Putucusi, Machu Picchu ("old peak" in Quechua) and

Huayna Picchu Huayna Picchu, , is a mountain in Peru around which the Urubamba River bends. It is located in the Cusco Region, Urubamba Province, Machupicchu District. It rises over Machu Picchu, the so-called Lost City of the Incas. The Incas built a t ...

("young peak") are considered

apus Apus is a small constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek language, Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. ...

or holy mountains by the local

people.

Climbing

The view of Machu Picchu from the summit requires a 1.5-hour trek up the mountain, with approximately 1,700 wood and rock steps. A recently discovered

Inca Trail The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (also known as ''Camino Inca'' or ''Camino Inka'') is a hiking trail in Peru that terminates at Machu Picchu. It consists of three overlapping trails: ''Mollepata'', ''Classic'', and ''One Day''. ''Mollepata'' is ...

, the path lies just 10 minutes west of

Aguas Calientes Agua Caliente, Aguas Calientes or Aguascalientes (Spanish for 'hot/warm water(s)' or 'hot spring(s)') may refer to: Places Central America * Agua Caliente, El Salvador * San Antonio Aguas Calientes, Guatemala Mexico * Aguascalientes, a state in M ...

following the train tracks along the Urubamba River. The entrance is free. The first half of the journey is jungle trail, and involves several vertical wooden ladders, the largest of which scales over . The second half presents views of Aguas Calientes and the Urubamba River valley, as the trail ascends the eastern face of Putucusi in switchback fashion. The trail passes through native flora including pisonayes, q'eofias, alisos, puya palm trees, ferns and more than 90 species of

orchids Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan plants that are found in almost every habitat on Earth ...

. In spring 2011, floods wiped out the vertical ladder section of the climb, making an ascent impossible without professional climbing gear, but by August 2012, all the ladders had been replaced. Updated to June 2016, the access to the trail has been restricted and forbidden, due to the lack of maintenance of the path. All the ladders are indeed destroyed and it's impossible and extremely dangerous to climb up without professional climbing equipment. Local rangers are monitoring the area and the entrance to avoid unauthorized accesses and prevent accidents.

Images

File:Mpicchumapa02.jpg, Sketch map of the site Machu Picchu showing the location of Putucusi Image:Putucusi.JPG, View of the summit of Putucusi from Machu Picchu Image:Putucusi Ladder.JPG, The largest of the steep wooden ladders on the trek to the summit of Putucusi, shown in 2007. Image:Machu Picchu from Putucusi.JPG, View of Machu Picchu from the summit of Putucusi

References

{{reflist Two-thousanders of the Andes Mountains of the Department of Cusco Sacred mountains of South America

Climbing

Images

See also

References