When you leave the little town of Aguas Calientes at the base of Machu Picchu and head back out of the Sacred Valley, you feel as if you have slipped the out of the fierce, piercing, penetrating, undeterminable stare of the emerald cloaked Emperor's Royal Guards. So severe are the slopes and terrain here, it is almost as if the mountains are those Royal Guards guarding a very precious and valuable treasure, which MP is. Darth Vader's Emperor would happily have th...

Villacamba was where the last Inca Emperor and his escorts holed up before they were overtaken by the Spaniards and the Inca Empire came to an end. It was this city that Prof Hiram Bingham was searching for in the Sacred Valley in 1911. But instead of finding what he was looking for, he fell through a bush in a small enclosure and noticed some stones that were separated by straight lines. He immediately knew that he found something man-made and proceeded to clear...

We are in hot water, literally. Beneath the fabled "lost" city of the Incas, Machu Picchu, lies the little village of Aguas Calientes. From the base of one of the towering mountains, that make this part of the world unique, flows a stream of hot soothing water. Hot Water in Spanish! From this little town you cannot see or even behold where Machu Picchu might be. All you know is that it is somewhere above you. High above. It could any of the three or fou...

Rio is famous for a lot of things. One of which is the Carnival. But that Carnival is not found just in Rio, but all over South America. And Cusco is no exception. But the way that they celebrate here is with water and shaving cream. More correctly, finding some unsuspecting sop and then ensuring that the target is absolutely drenched! The Peruvians take it all in good spirits and laugh while wiping the shaving cream or water off themselves. But some of the trave...

Everybody has heard of Cusco; the beating heart of the Inca Empire and now gateway to the Inca's Sacred Valley and the world famous Machu Picchu and Inca Trail. It is a capital of an area rich in history, fact, myth and legend. In many ways, Cusco is at the crossroads of the South American continent and the whole area is renowned as an archaeological treasure trove with sites with names like Sacsayhuaman (pronounced Sexy Woman), Pisac, Moras, Ollantaytambo and Ma...