Inca Trail Names

Most of the names of places on the Inca Trail were invented by Hiram Bingham, who led the 1911 expedition that rediscovered the trail. For these translations, I am indebted to Martina Faller and Ines Callalli Villafuerte, who were kind enough to provide me with a list of translations in both English and Spanish.

Quechua	Spanish	English	Derivation
Cusichaca	Puente Alegre	Bridge of Happiness	cusi = happy chaca = bridge
Q'orihuayrachina	(lugar donde) Se Limpia el Oro con el Viento	Gold-sifting Place	q'ori = gold huayra = wind -chi = causative -na = nominalizer
Patallacta	Pueblo Alto	High Village	pata = high part llacta = village
Huayllabamba	Lugar de Pasto	Place of Good Pasture	huaylla = good pasture bamba = place
Llupachayoc	(lugar donde) Se Hace Ceremoniales	Place of Offerings
Huarmihuanusca	Mujer Muerta	Dead Woman	huarmi = woman huanusca = dead
Pacamayo	Rio Escondido	Hidden River	mayo = river pacay = to hide
Runkuracay 1	Ruinas Amontonadas	Pile of Ruins	runku = piled racay = derelict house
Sayacmarca	Poblado Pendiente	Village (in a) Steep Place	sayac = steep, vertical marca = village
Phuyupatamarca	Pueblo Alto en las Nubes	Town High in the Clouds 3	phuyu = cloud pata = high part marca = village
Huinay Huayna	Joven Para Siempre	Forever Young	huinay = forever huayna = young
Intipunku	Puerta del Sol	Gateway of the Sun 2	inti = sun punku = gate, door

1. The 'Diccionario de la Academia Mayor de la Lengua Quechua' gives Runruracay as an alternative to Runkuracay. 'runru' is an onomatopoeic word indicating a sound made by people, so a possible translation could be 'fallen guest house'.

2. The name doesn't indicate direction, but Ines Callalli Villafuerte suggests that this means 'the gate through which the sun comes', not the 'gate (leading) to the sun'.

3. Enrique Delgado suggests that an alternative translation for Phuyupatamarca in current Quechua might be 'very windy town'. The word 'phuyu', which is translated as 'cloud' in some dialects of Quechua, is more commonly understood by many Andean Quechua speakers to mean 'wind'.