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 Machu Picchu being the more familiar.

But new discoveries are being made all the time. Satellite images have shown man-made pyramidal structures deep in the jungle in the Madre de Dios province and two expeditions have already been dispatched, but both failed in reaching the target. Could Indiana Jones have been right about the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? How true are the legends of the Chronicles of Anakor? And what about the myths of large, white men with blue eyes and red hair in the Inca Empire long before the Spaniards ever arrived? Peru is a country replete with stories like these and any wannabe Indiana Jones just needs to head out here and revel in the possibilities of finding undiscovered cities with unlimited adventure of the old kind thrown in free of charge!

In the height of the Inca Empire, although there was civil war, the ceremonial centres were covered in sheets of gold and silver (the flesh of the gods) and decorated with fabulous statues and symbols of those precious metals. With incredible disregard for any cultural and aesthetic value, the Spaniards simply melted the lot down and shipped it off to Spain. To further break their will, the heart of the Empire was a place where the Spaniards built seven large churches and chapels that now dominate the old central area in an attempt to erase the symbols of the Inca belief.

But slowly, but surely, the Peruvians are embracing their own heritage and taking back their country and towns for their own. Roads, mountains, towns and cities are becoming known by their old names. And Cusco is no exception. Before the Spaniards, in Quechuan this city was known as "the earth's navel" or Qos'q and we know it as Cusco today.

But even before you get near Cusco, there are plenty of other ruins to admire and marvel at. Not just the Incas; but also the Pukaras and the Tiahaucanos. Long before the Incas came on the scene, there were well established civilisations that thrived on the altiplano and shore of Lake Titicaca. Since we came to learn a little while we were here, a tour that stopped off at the significant spots along the way from Puno to Cusco was a must!

Between the rain showers and through the Scottish highland-like changing scenery, high mountain passes, snow covered peaks and languid rivers, we learnt of the Pukaras who dominated the altiplano from 200BC to 400AD and their need to sacrifice humans in the worship of their gods for appeasement and blessings. Further down the road we heard of the Tiahaucanos and what they achieved before coming to Raqui.

In its hey day, it was a massive religio-military complex that was situated at the very head of the Sacred Valley, dominated the local landscape and undoubtedly dominated the thoughts of the Inca's defeated enemies, unhappy vassals and slaves. When the Spanish come across this complex, they destroyed the central temple with the highest roof in the Inca empire. They also ransacked the treasury, pillaged the 150 full food silos and destroyed most of what they deemed not to be of value.

Walking through the ruins, that have been partially restored, you have a real sense of the power that this complex must have exerted in these regions and how much power the military and religious leaders must have had to play with. But beyond that, and ignoring the little Spanish style chapel, it feels almost as if not much has changed in the farmers' lives that surround the ruined complex. Crops still need to be planted and harvested, eaten and any surplus sold wherever the market might be.

To get a feel for a local homestead and how it is run (with the ubiquitous craft market nearby), we stopped off and had a look. In the central little area were three llamas. Cross a camel with a sheep and you have a llama. The smallest of the three bounded up and eagerly looked for who had the baby's milk bottle. Ing didn't disappoint and the baby llama (or is it llamalet? Llamatjie?) sucked for all he was worth!

Like everybody has heard of Cusco, most people know that guinea pig is almost always on a Peruvian menu. Coming across the "kitchen of the Andes" and the floor is covered with plump delicious looking guinea pigs. Scuttling away when you get too close, but happy for you to get close enough to hear them chirp, whine, whistle and grunt to each other while the hold their food in their front paws chewing away. Once you have seen how sweet and cute these little guys are, it becomes very hard to think about having one baked for supper! But in reality, these guinea pigs are staple food for many altiplano families. Easy to raise, breeding like proverbial flies, cheap to feed and with a herd mentality, they are the near perfect protein source in a bleak and harsh world.

Called the "Sistine Chapel of the Americas", Andahuaylillas is formally a Catholic Baroque style church and, as such, is extremely ornate and replete in huge oil paintings that cover fresco covered walls! It seems as if there is no space anywhere in the church that has not, at some point, had received the attention of a loving artist. The roof included! Inside this little once-upon-a-time Jesuit church tucked in the back streets of this little valley town, there is a meeting of various cultures again. Right above the altar is an Arabic star and at the highest point of the ornate wall behind the alter is an Inca sun and moon. Across the roof, between the supporting beams are stars from another time!

In nine brief hours, we had journeyed from Puno to Cusco. But, in reality, we had journey through eons of time and the civilisations that they bear; through staggeringly different attitudes and beliefs that each civilisation declares as its own; we had seen the ever widening divide between the urban "rich" and the rural country side "poor"; come through rain, wind, snow and shine; crossed vast mountains and the wide open bleak and harsh altiplano and yet we had not even seen the scratch on the surface of this ancient country.

Wow.