VACATION DETAILS

The Cuzco (Cusco) region of Peru combines Inca legacy with Spanish colonial architecture in an atmosphere at once provincial and sublime. The chaotic marketplaces where campesinos barter grain or potatoes for multi-colored fabric belie the mute spirituality of the Lost Cities, where Inca stonework conveys order and balance. Such diversity enhances this inspiring nine-day adventure. The blue sky radiates with an intensity achieved only at high altitudes (the city of Cuzco lies 11,150 feet above sea level), while the landscape offers its unique pattern of exacting agricultural grids and tangled jungle masses.

Renown for its village and Sunday outdoor market (smaller markets on Tuesday and Thursday), Pisac is teaming with vibrant local crafts, produce, ceramics and vibrantly dyed textiles. Hike up to the Pisac Incan ruins, where terraced hills, ancient steps and water ducts have been wrought from stone. Further up the ruins, the Sun Temple and other hidden remains of this ancient society wait to be explored.
 

Machu Picchu is a fortress city of the ancient Incas, in a high saddle between two peaks 50 miles NW of Cuzco, Peru. The extraordinary pre-Columbian ruin consists of five sq. miles of terraced stonework link by 3,000 steps; it was virtually intact when discovered by Hiram Bibghan in 1911.