Off into the sunset …

Today we started the Inca Trail, the other “big event” item on the Big Trip.

It was an early start with a 5:15am pick up, and, after collecting the porters, and Jess and Juan from Canada who were the other two travellers in our nice small party, we finally got underway. A cold and erratic van trip […]

The final stop on the tour was to see a weaving and dyeing display in the town of Chinchero (somewhere around S 13°23.6′, W 72°3′). Again this was a mix of education, culture and advertising, but among many other things we learned what natural materials give rise to different coloured dyes for wool.

Apparently there is a […]

After lunch at one of the tourist restaurants that cater for these sorts of tours (this one had an amazing garden as well as an extensive variety of food) we made our way to Ollantaytambo (S 13°15.4′, W 72°16′). Here, many parts of the town still retain the original Incan buildings, but the main ruins that […]

Today our exploration of Incan ruins continued, with a day-trip excursion to some of the ruins in the Sacred Valley. This valley follows the Urabamba River, a river which eventually (via another river) joins the mighty Amazon. The U-shaped glacial geomorphology of the valley — together with the lower altitude, warmer temperatures, and good rainfall — resulted […]

Cusco was the centre of the Incan empire (early 1400s to late 1500s), and at one stage its influence spread across much of the west side of South America. After our morning of caching we took a tour to see some of the Incan ruins around Cusco. Of course, the Spanish came along in the 1500s […]

Today had a very early start, as we packed up and were taken to the bus station to catch our coach for the nearly-400km trip from Puno to Cusco, with detours to see some sights along the way. Our guide was an enthusiastic and voluble woman, which was okay to start off with, but I confess […]

The rain was still coming down at our next stop and so I got somewhat damp as we walked up to a small hall where we were served lunch. We had a nice quinoa soup, and then the main meal — beans, potatoes, trout, chicken and banana — had all been cooked in paper on hot […]

With my rain jacket packed away in my missing luggage I have to confess I was a little concerned about the ominous clouds that loomed over Lake Titicaca as we set off on our day tour from Puno.

Lake Titicaca is generally regarded as the highest navigable lake in the world (where “navigable” means more than just […]

This was the one day of the trip in which systems didn’t quite work as intended. My suitcase — which had been on the luggage belt with my sister’s in Lima — completely failed to arrive in Juliaca (the airport closest to Puno, our next destination), and although there were a couple of days before my […]