This picturesque, highland town was once the centre of the Inca Empire, and today draws visitors from all over the World. Cusco was conquered by the Spaniards who built their churches and houses on top of the Inca remains. Inca decorative stonework is found throughout the city: walls, doorways, arches are often incorporated into newer structures like fragments of a broken mosaic. Cusco also contains some more extensive Inca ruins, including the Temples of the Sun and the Moon. To the Incas it was known as ‘the navel of the world’, recently it has become focus of ‘gringo’ invaders, the traveller. As well as numerous historical sights there are shops, restaurants, bars and even nightclubs with traditional music.

Cusco is a gateway to the other main Inca Sites, the Sacred Valley and a good place to acclimatise before hiking the famous Inca trail or white-water rafting. Alternatively the train to Machu Picchu starts here. Whichever way you go the arrival will be impressive. The citadel lies atop a precipitous mountain with white waters of the Urubamba far below.

See also: Cusco (Tailor-made tour option), Machu Picchu (Tailor-made tour option)

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
This classic journey takes four days to arrive at the Sun Gate of Machu Picchu. The trek is probably the most spectacular trekking experience on the continent. It's no easy hike. The route passes through a 4,200m / 13,000 foot Andean pass beyond which lie some of the most astounding remains of the Inca civilization. These lay undisturbed for hundreds of years, and much of the walk's joy is the sensation of trekking into a region sealed off from time. The hike starts with a long climb, much ups and downs,


A bridge along the Inca Trail. Enlarge image

passing through increasingly splendid ruins, surrounded all the while by ice-capped mountains and cloud-forests. The trail ends at the astonishingly well-preserved sacred city of Machu Picchu. Gazing across the ruins, with its perfectly set stairways, dwellings, fountains and still functional aqueducts, is a haunting experience; it feels like its residents have only recently walked away.

How the city ended is a great mystery. It was once filled with priests, artisans, and the mamacunas, a group of select virgins who dedicated their lives to the sun god. The Spanish have no records of the city, and when it was rediscovered in 1911, it was overrun by the nearby jungle.

Today only organized hikes by a licensed operator are allowed, there are rules to follow and a fee is levied. In the past native porters have been exploited and there are guidelines to make sure that porters get a fair deal (for information see Inka Porter Project).

There are several alternative Inca trails some shorter (1 night camping) others longer. Acclimatization should be considered for all.

See also: Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (Tailor-made tour option)

Arequipa
Arequipa is known as the ‘White City’, as much of its architecture is constructed of ‘sillar’, a light-coloured volcanic rock. Arequipa lies in a picturesque valley fringed by beautiful mountains, including the snow-capped volcanic cone of El Misti.


	The Convent of Santa Catalina. Enlarge image

The city has lost its earliest buildings to earthquakes but has very fine seventeenth and eighteenth century buildings. The most famous is the Convent of Santa Catalina, a city-within-a-city, which when opened to the public in 1970 revealed a world of luxurious seclusion that had been sealed off from the world for almost four centuries. In the Andean Sanctuaries museum lies Juanita, the Inca Ice-Maiden, the best preserved human sacrifice.

Colca Canyon
The Colca Canyon is one of nature's most awe-inspiring sights, more than twice the depth of the Grand Canyon. Carved over eons by the Colca River, near Arequipa, it stretches about 60 kilometres from the town of Chivay, in the east, to Cabanaconde, in the west. By the time the river reaches Cabanaconde, it has fallen about 1,300 meters in elevation. At present it takes six hours from Arequipa, but a new road will reduce the time to four.

Ancient stone terraces show it was inhabited before the Incas but westerners only explored until the last few decades. Small towns and villages sit atop the canyon banks, Chivay is known for its hot springs and as the main place for exploring the chasm. Moving west on the canyon's southern edge, travellers encounter the villages of Achoma and Maca, where local women wear intricate and colourful mountain dresses identical to those of their ancestors. At the nearby Cruz del Condor, visitors can look into the eyeballs of rare giant Andean condors as they ride the morning thermals rising from the canyon floor. Recently an even deeper canyon Cotahuasi has been opened up to the more adventurous traveller.

Lake Titicaca
A breathtaking train or bus ride from Cusco leads to the deep blue waters of Lake Titicaca sandwiched between Peru and Bolivia at 3,856m above sea level. It is always a surprise to arrive at this inland ‘sea’


Floating reed islands on Lake Titicaca. Enlarge image

after travelling across mountains and dry plateaux. It is the highest navigable lake in the world. A British built steam ship has recently been restored as a tourist attraction. If you have time the most rewarding experience is to visit one of the islands like Taquile, where one can stay with local families, it is like stepping back several centuries in time. Closer to the town of Puno are the floating reed islands of the Uros.

Highland Peru - North

Huascaràn National Park
Set among the snow-capped peaks of the Cordillera Blanca, lies area of the Andes that is renowned as one of the most exciting trekking regions of South America. More than twenty-five of its peaks exceed 19,500 feet. The hub of trekking activity in the park is the modest city of Huaràz. Huascaràn, Peru's tallest mountain at 22,200 feet is the centrepiece of the park. Don't miss Puya, dramatic plants that burst into bloom with an enormous spike that bears thousands of brilliant green blossoms. The thorny leaves that crown the puya are frequently strewn with the impaled carcasses of inattentive songbirds.

Chachapoyas
Known as the land of the cloud people, this civilization built huge walled cities, such as Kuelap, long before the Incas. There are a number of sites which have only recently been opened for visitors which can be accessed from Chachapoyas, set among dazzling scenery but the roads to get there are not for the faint-hearted.

Coastal Region

The Humboldt Current is a deep upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich water that sweeps northward along the Peruvian coast hosting a rich and varied population of sea and bird life. Islas Ballestas and the Paracas Bird Reserve are the coast's wildlife sanctuaries. They are home to communities of sea lions and scores of sea and land birds, including Guanay cormorant, Peruvian and brown booby, Chilean flamingo, seaside cinclodes, and Peruvian pelican. The brilliantly-coloured Inca tern and the Humboldt penguin - a rarity this far north -are also found here.

Lima
Lima is a dusty city that sprawls along the desert coast, but has plenty to offer the adventurous traveller; interesting museums, a vibrant cafe scene, striking architecture and genuinely friendly people. Lima's archaeology museums have fine collections. The charming restored colonial centre, centred on the Plaza de Armas is well worth a visit, preferably with a guide. Its churches provide a welcome refuge from the outside clamour, and its many markets overflow with exotic goods and handicrafts. There are also plazas, lovely old buildings and a zoo. Live music of African and Andean roots can be heard in the bars of Miraflores and Barranco.

Nazca

	Nazca Lines. Enlarge image

The Nazca Lines are one of the world's most impressive ancient mysteries. Located about two hundred miles south of Lima, stretching over a desert plateau, the lines consist of a series of enormous drawings of birds, animals and geometric figures. The figures were scratched into the desert crust nearly two millennia ago, preserved by the extreme dryness nearly intact. The purpose of the Nazca Lines remains unclear, though they seem to bear some relation to astronomical cycles. Much of their celebrity status is a result of a popular pseudo- scientific work which suggested that the plateau was a sort of interplanetary airport. Though this theory was discredited by the scientific community, it attracted thousands to the lines. Arriving on foot or by car or motorcycle they have caused irreversible damage to the ancient marks. Ground travel is now illegal in the area. The best way to see them is from the air, so flights over the lines are offered via Lima and from the town of Nazca.

Trujillo
Trujillo city has a fine colonial centre. Nearby you can relax or surf the Pacific breakers at Huanchaco. Close to Trujillo you can visit the World’s largest structure made of mud, the adobe city of Chan-chan. Other remnants of Pre-Columbian sites, or huacas, can be visited, but all the treasures are found in the museums at Trujillo and Lima.

Chiclayo
Yet more archaeological treasures have been uncovered at Sipan, a tomb that rivalled those of Egypt. Inside were some of the finest jewellery, pottery and textiles found in the Americas. Another nearby mud city of Tucumé was built at least a thousand years ago.

The Amazon

The source of the mighty Amazon lies in the remote highlands of the east. Below the glacial melt-waters, streams collect as they pass through the cloud-forest, home to the spectacled bear, rare orchids and hummingbirds. The rivers swell and reach the lowland rainforest on their way to Brazil. The region is the most biological diverse area on the planet. It is the land of reclusive creatures such as the jaguar, Andean, giant otter, and tapir. The bird population of surpasses the rest of the world. With 1,700 species of birds, the country is an unparalleled destination for bird enthusiasts. Peru has two distinct regions of Amazonian rain forest, one in the north and one in the south. Iquitos, situated at the Amazon headwaters the north, is the point of entry for northern Amazon, while the southern regions are best accessed from either Cusco or Puerto Maldonado. The Peruvian jungle is an ideal place to visit the rainforest.

Manu National Park
Covering more than half the size 13,000 sq. km., Manu is the largest and one of the most remote of Peru's parks. This Biosphere Reserve is home to an extraordinary abundance and diversity of wildlife, including ocelots, jaguars, alligators, otters, and about a thousand species of birds. An excellent way to see the park is via its principal waterway, the Manu River. The river passes through the park's entire northern domain, skirting ox-bow lakes that are home to the rare giant otter. Some trips travel overland down the eastern Andes to approach the forest gradually. Those on a tight schedule can fly from Cusco.

Tambopata Research Centre
Southeast of Manu National Park, off the Tambopata River near the Bolivian border, is a place of singular wonder: the Tambopata Research Centre (accessed through Puerto Maldonado). The research centre is home to an amazing fixture, a clay lick used by the forest's parrots and macaws. When the morning sun clears one the world's most dazzling wildlife gatherings happens, the steep river bank becomes a pulsing, palette of red, blue, yellow and green as more than a thousand parrots squabble perches to grab a beakful of clay, a vital part of their diet (to help counter-act toxins injested).