Blogs from Sacred Valley, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 17

We'll that's what I thought to begin with...but I seemed to have forgot a small detail about the Pisaq ruins I wanted to visit. Just a small one, you know, that you need to ascend 600 METERS from the town by the river up to the actual ruins. I was puffing by the time we got to the main entrance and the guard was like no worries it is easier once you get to the switch backs - yeah right? Maybe it would have been if you walked them every day of your life from incubation... Either way we went, we climbed the stairs to the very top only to discover that a lot of people seemed to take taxis to the top and (wisely) walk down the length of the trail. Others didn't even do ... read more

Hola again, I have been getting a lot of feedback from my last blog entry from the Colca Canyon, lots of which expressed dismay at how dangerous the trip was. For those of you who feel this way, uh, please stop reading now. So, three or four days ago I took the advice of a travel buddy and rented, for the day, a dirtbike to drive around the ruin riddled sacred valley just outside of Cuzco. Taking with me two backpackers from my hostel (one who is now a quasi girlfriend and the other a friend I will surely meet up with in Canada again) I got to the rental place early in the morning on a typically gray Cuzco day. I had decided earlier to take out a 400 cc bike, but once seeing the ... read more

After getting settled into Cusco and shedding a few tonnes of crap that we bought along the way, we figured it was time to venture a bit farther a field and begin checking out the neighbouring pueblos. As we headed out, it became pretty obvious that the renowned Machu Picchu is only one of many amazing Inca ruins near Cusco. In fact, it seemed that every little pueblo we popped into (i.e., Pisaq, Ollantaytambo, Pumamarca) held some pile of rocks that could be attributed to those busy Incas. One can not deny the amount of ingenuity and workmanship that this culture displayed in building their cities of stone. While never losing recognition of the amazing works that the Incas left behind, we both began to suffer from Ruin-Overload. Fortunately, most of the towns we stayed in ... read more

As fas as being on the tourist trail is concerned, Cuzco is right up there. The discovery of Machu Picchu some hundred years before turned what was once a relative backwater into something of a tourist hotspot. It was with some cynisism therefore that we travelled to Cuzco - but how could you possibly visit Peru without seeing Machu Picchu? For those that don't know what all the fuss is about, Machu Picchu is the most complete Inca city discovered, perched atop a mountain in the a most innaccessible region of Peru. The location itself is incredible enough, let alone the incredibly well preserved ruins that sit precariously in the clouds. Our arrival in Cuzco went according to plan, avoiding the many touts by virtue of a prior reservation secured (including a sizable discount - low ... read more

November 24, 2005 (Cuzco, Peru) Sean: From Pisco we hopped in another Royal Class bus to head to Nazca to see the world famous Nazca Lines. These are mysterious figures etched into the brown desert by unknown ancient peoples for an unknown purpose. Curiously the only way to view them is from a high altitude so theories abound about their purpose - from deity worship to astronomical calculations to extra terrestrial communication. The town offers plenty of plane rides and all manner of ways to get you to see them (the touts were unrelenting again). We chose the more mundane route and took a bus to a lookout tower where you can get a view of a couple of the images from a height of about 100ft off the ground. They’re spread out over 500 square ... read more