Last August, my daughter and I completed the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu, an unforgettable adventure through the soaring Andes to one of the most iconic treasures of the Inca civilization. While visiting Cusco, the historic heart of the Inca Empire, I was eager to experience another important part of Peruvian culture: the ancient weaving traditions of the Quechua people.

The Quechua people of Peru are renowned for their extraordinary textiles, colorful handwoven fabrics created and preserved for thousands of years in the Andes. More than simply beautiful souvenirs, these traditional Andean textiles are deeply connected to Quechua history, spirituality, and daily life. Because the Quechua language was historically passed down orally rather than through written texts, weaving became an essential way to preserve ancestral stories, mythology, cultural identity, and regional traditions.

Today, Quechua weaving remains a sacred art form passed from one generation to the next. Every pattern, color, and symbol woven into the fabric carries meaning, telling stories of family, nature, and life in the Andes. Visiting a Quechua weaving community near Cusco offered us a rare opportunity to learn firsthand about one of Peru’s most enduring and meaningful cultural traditions.

Beautiful mama and baby (Betsy and her son, Samir) who showed us how to thread wool – not an easy thing to do – with a baby on her back.

Through careful research, I found the perfect Cusco-based guide, Marin Claure, to take my daughter and me on a half-day visit to witness traditional weaving firsthand. Martin is deeply passionate about the history of Andean textiles. After working in various non-profit organizations, he launched his own sustainable tours on Airbnb Experiences roughly seven years ago to connect travelers with a Quechua family in Amaru Village, located about an hour and a half northeast of Cusco in the Andean Highlands.

We left Cusco after breakfast, passing through villages and terraced pastures until we reached the tiny village of Amaru, which means “snake” in Quechua and perfectly described the winding roads.  Amaru is a small Quechua community of mostly farmers, and has slowly been opening up to sustainable, community-based tourism initiatives thanks to people like Martin.

During our visit, we met Walter and his wife Lucia, both incredible weavers, along with their son Fernando, his wife Betsy, and their adorable baby, Samir. The entire family would participate in the experience, ending with a traditional lunch of quinoa soup and fresh vegetables.

We were warmly greeted by our hosts, Lucia and Walter, and offered a cup of mint tea.  Then, it was time to learn about weaving with Fernando and Betsy.

Our host’s home in Amaru

Lucia and Walter greet us at their home

The process begins with gathering the raw material. Because many Quechua families are traditionally alpaca farmers, alpaca wool is most commonly used for its softness, and sheep’s wool is also used for smaller items like hats and mittens. Every six months, families climb into the high pastures to carefully shear the alpacas using special knives.

Next, we learned how to spin the wool by hand, which was far more difficult than it looked. It takes patience, coordination, and years of practice to master the technique.  

The alpaca wool is cleaned entirely by hand, but is not washed because it naturally contains little oil. Sheep’s wool, however, is much oilier and must first be washed with a natural soap before being laid out to dry before it can be dyed. 

The dyes themselves are completely natural and locally sourced from plants, volcanic rocks, minerals, and even insects. The Quechua people possess an incredible knowledge of how these natural ingredients work, not only for textiles but also for traditional medicines.

To dye the wool, water is heated in a clay pot over a fire and mixed with the natural coloring agents. The wool is then submerged in the boiling water for five to twenty minutes, allowing the fibers to absorb the rich colors before being hung out to dry.

The red dye on my hand comes from a beetle that eats prickly pear cactus. It makes red as well as a dozen more colors. Pretty amazing! 

Once the wool is ready, it is used to make sweaters, blankets, clothing, hats, gloves, and tablecloths using traditional looms. For our experience, we learned how to make a simple bracelet which honestly was much harder than it looked.

Here is a video I made of our experience. At the end, you can see some of the elaborate hand-woven goods they made for sale in their shop. While no purchase is required, I could not resist buying a beautiful decorative table runner to remind me of my trip and the beauty of the Quechua culture.

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It was the perfect way to end our amazing time in Peru.If you visit Cusco, I highly recommend this tour.