Peru - Lonely Planet Publications [172]
Programs can include any combination of local food, storytelling, homestay, bird-watching, dances and archaeology. Knowing that your money is going directly to community members is an added bonus.
Community representatives rotate in week-long shifts staffing the network’s excellent Centro de Información in Copacabana (Click here). This museum is a must-see, even if you don’t intend to take a tour, for its fresh and engaging insight into local life.
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Cuzco & the Sacred Valley
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CUZCO
HISTORY
ORIENTATION
INFORMATION
DANGERS & ANNOYANCES
SIGHTS
ACTIVITIES
WALKING TOUR
COURSES
TOURS & GUIDES
FESTIVALS & EVENTS
SLEEPING
EATING
DRINKING & ENTERTAINMENT
SHOPPING
GETTING THERE & AWAY
GETTING AROUND
AROUND CUZCO
SACSAYWAMÁN
Q’ENQO
PUKAPUKARA
TAMBOMACHAY
THE SACRED VALLEY
PISAC
PISAC TO URUBAMBA
URUBAMBA
SALINAS
CHINCHERO
MORAY AND MARAS
OLLANTAYTAMBO
MACHU PICCHU & THE INCA TRAIL
AGUAS CALIENTES
MACHU PICCHU
THE INCA TRAIL
CUZCO TO PUNO
TIPÓN
PIQUILLACTA & RUMICOLCA
ANDAHUAYLILLAS
RAQCHI
RAQCHI TO ABRA LA RAYA
CUZCO TO THE JUNGLE
CUZCO TO IVOCHOTE
CUZCO TO MANU
CUZCO TO PUERTO MALDONADO
CUZCO TO THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS
CUZCO TO ABANCAY
ABANCAY
ANDAHUAYLAS
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Cuzco effortlessly enchants, bombarding the senses with a swirl of art, religion, music, architecture, food, and fiestas – every possible manifestation of the syncretic Inca-Spanish culture that makes the Andes so fascinating.
Ladies with llamas walk cobbled streets. Coca-chewing local honchos parade to church in ceremonial regalia for Mass in Quechua. Cuzco’s proud pagan past collides with solemn Catholic rituals in parades that stop traffic at the drop of a hat throughout the year, and almost daily for the whole month of June.
The past is ever present. Massive ruins draw tourists in daily droves. Intrepid explorers carve their way through the jungle to genuine lost cities. Colonial churches filled with incomprehensible riches slowly crumble in the drowsy plazas of towns too small to warrant a bus stop. Climb any hill in the Sacred Valley and you’ll stumble on piles of rocks – forgotten by all but the locals– that invite you to dream up your own stories.
Cuzco’s human history is Peru’s biggest tourism drawcard, but there’s more on offer. Locals and visitors alike are waking up to the adventure-sport possibilities of a region perched on the eastern edge of the Andes, where you can drop from breathtaking snowy altitudes to the suffocating heat of the Amazon jungle at dizzying speed. While Cuzco’s trekking opportunities are already well known, its biking and river routes are now gaining the recognition they deserve. There are extreme sportspeople who have been to Cuzco more than once and never visited Machu Picchu: they’re too busy biking, hiking, running rivers and climbing. It’s true.
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HIGHLIGHTS
Bike, hike, raft, zip-line and soak your way to Machu Picchu via Santa Teresa (Click here)
Buy avant-garde clothes and jewelry from hole-in-the-wall shops in Cuzco’s artsy San Blas district (Click here)
Trek to remote, jungle-clad Inca ruins such as Choquequirau (Click here) and Vilcabamba (Click here)
Soak up the pastoral serenity of the Sacred Valley (Click here)
Join locals for an artery-clogging Sunday lunch (Click here)
BIGGEST CITY: CUZCO, POPULATION 350,000 AVERAGE TEMPERATURE: JANUARY 7°C TO 20°C, JULY −1°C TO 21°C
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CUZCO
084 / pop 350,000 / elev 3326m
Legend tells that in the 12th century, the sun god Inti looked down on the earth and decided that the people needed organizing, so he created the first Inca, Manco Cápac, and his sister-wife, Mama Ocllo. They came to life on Isla del Sol (Sun Island), way over in Lake Titicaca, with a long walk ahead of them. Inti gave Manco Cápac a golden rod and told him to settle in the spot where he could plunge it into the ground until it disappeared: this would be the navel of the earth (qosq’o in the Quechua language). And