In days gone by the Inca Trail might have been more straightforward, but today's routes to Cusco are far from it. Here is a potted history of my journey from Vilcabamba...

Rattly bus to Zumba; truck to La Bamba through beautiful scenery; a walk across the bridge into Peru to collect another smudged passport stamp; a ride in a car to San Ignacio with a man behind me who was vomiting into a paper bag because he was crammed in with a cage full of smelly chickens; a bus ride to Jaen; another bus to Chiclayo where I visited the witches' market hoping to pick up something that might fix my stomach; a luxury overnight bus to Lima where I stayed for three nights so that I could visit a clinic (nothing was resolved other than the purchase of even more antibiotics); and finally four nights in Arequipa before taking another overnight bus to the ancient Inca capital. In Lima I was also re-joined by Helen who will be travelling with me for the rest of the trip, so I now have to remember to conjugate my verb endings with "amos" instead of "o".

I mentioned some time ago that I would return to Arequipa. This is Peru's second city, and is very interesting with its cathedral and major buildings made from volcanic rock bricks. As in Cusco, these came from previous Inca temples which were destroyed by the Spanish and re-built around their own religion and style. The huge convent is a highlight in this city which is lit up with candles on some evenings.

Another interesting visit for me was to see the body of Juanita, a sixteen year old girl who was sacrificed on top of a 6400m mountain. I have seen several of these "mummies" before, but this museum was the best in terms of re-creating what went on at these ceremonies. Each child had been chosen from birth, and when the time was right had to walk with the priests all the way from Cusco to the mountain top which was believed to be the home of the gods. The journey could take up to four months. These people must surely have been the world's first mountaineers - it is astonishing how they managed to climb to those altitudes wearing only llama sandals and ceremonial robes.

And now we have arrived in Cusco at a very significant time of year in Inca culture. More to follow, but for now I have finally added my photographs from Arequipa which doesn't get a blog entry of its own in the interest of not creating a spider's web of lines on my map.

Posted June 30th, 2012.