Cusco, Machu Picchu & the Sacred Valley

Cusco was the centre of the Inca world. From a small kingdom in the valley, the Inca under Pachacuti and his successors built in the 15th century an empire that ran the length of the Andes, and remade Cusco as a capital of fitted stone walls, with the sun temple of Qorikancha at its heart and the fortress of Sacsayhuamán above. Royal estates were laid out in the Urubamba valley, among them Machu Picchu, built around 1450. Around Titicaca, earlier peoples of the Pukara and Tiwanaku traditions and then the Aymara-speaking Colla and Lupaca kingdoms held the high plain before the Inca absorbed them.

The Spanish took Cusco in 1533. Manco Inca besieged it in 1536, then withdrew to Vilcabamba, where an Inca state held out until 1572, when Túpac Amaru I was captured and executed in Cusco's main square. Colonial Cusco became a city of churches and a centre of painting, and in 1780 José Gabriel Condorcanqui, as Túpac Amaru II, led a great rebellion from the Cusco highlands; he was executed in the city in 1781. Machu Picchu, never found by the Spanish, became world famous after Hiram Bingham's visit in 1911.

In the 20th century a 1950 earthquake damaged much of Cusco, land reform broke up the haciendas, and tourism transformed the city. Gold mining has reshaped Madre de Dios, and copper mining at Las Bambas in Apurímac has brought repeated road blockades. Since December 2022 Puno and Cusco have been centres of the protests against the government, and on 9 January 2023, 17 civilians were killed in Juliaca during clashes between protesters and security forces.

This is the heartland of Andean Indigenous culture. Quechua is spoken throughout the Cusco and Apurímac highlands, and around Titicaca both Quechua and Aymara, with Aymara strongest near the Bolivian border. Offerings to Pachamama and the apus, the mountain spirits, remain part of farming life, and villages keep communal work and the ayllu kin group.

The festival calendar is the richest in Peru. Inti Raymi, the Inca festival of the sun, is re-enacted at Sacsayhuamán on 24 June; Corpus Christi brings the saints of Cusco's parishes to the cathedral; Qoyllur Rit'i takes tens of thousands of pilgrims to a glacier below Ausangate; and Puno's Virgen de la Candelaria, with hundreds of dance troupes in costume, is one of South America's largest festivals. Qoyllur Rit'i, Candelaria, the textile art of Taquile and the yearly rebuilding of the grass bridge of Q'eswachaka are all recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage.

Weaving is the great art: villages such as Chinchero and Taquile each have their own patterns, and on Taquile men knit the hats. The Cusco School of colonial painting mixed European models with local detail, and the city's markets still sell carved figures, ceramics and textiles.

Cusco has more than 400,000 people and lives mainly from tourism, which employs guides, porters, cooks, hotel staff and weavers across the region. Juliaca, a busy trading city on the plain, stands inland from Puno, the regional capital on the lake. Abancay and Andahuaylas are the main towns of Apurímac, and Puerto Maldonado is the frontier capital of Madre de Dios.

Away from tourism, the highland economy is small-scale farming of potatoes, maize and quinoa, herding of alpacas and llamas on the high puna, and mining. Madre de Dios depends on Brazil nuts, timber and gold, much of it mined illegally with mercury that has cleared forest and polluted rivers. Contraband trade with Bolivia is a mainstay around Juliaca and Desaguadero.

Pressure from visitor numbers is a constant issue: rising rents in central Cusco, crowding and ticket disputes at Machu Picchu. The protests and blockades since 2022 have hit incomes hard and reflect long-standing grievances in the south.

Cusco's cooking is Andean. Cuy al horno, guinea pig roasted whole, is the celebration dish; lechón, roast suckling pig, is sold at weekends; and adobo, pork marinated in chicha and spices, is another local favourite. For Corpus Christi the city eats chiriuchu, a cold platter of guinea pig, chicken, dried meat, sausage, seaweed, fish roe and maize cake. Soups are central, and chuño, freeze-dried potato, keeps through the year. The village of Oropesa is known for its bread.

Around Puno, trout from Titicaca is fried or grilled, quinoa goes into soups and pesque, a thick dish of quinoa cooked in milk, and chairo is a hearty Andean soup of chuño, meat and vegetables. In Madre de Dios the food is Amazonian, with river fish, juane and Brazil nuts.

Chicha de jora, maize beer, is sold in houses marked by a red flag, and frutillada is its strawberry version. Coca tea is offered for the altitude, and Cusco has a lively trade in local craft beer and chocolate.

Cusco has the Plaza de Armas with the cathedral and La Compañía, Qorikancha beneath the Santo Domingo convent, the twelve-angled stone in Hatun Rumiyoc street, the San Blas artisans' quarter and, above the city, Sacsayhuamán, Q'enqo and Tambomachay. The Sacred Valley runs below: Pisac's terraces and market, Chinchero's church and weavers, the salt pans of Maras, the circular terraces of Moray and the fortress-temple of Ollantaytambo.

Machu Picchu, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is visited on timed tickets along set routes, with Huayna Picchu and Machu Picchu Mountain as separately ticketed climbs. The Inca Trail approaches through cloud forest to the Sun Gate, and the Salkantay trek and the long walk to Choquequirao are alternatives. South-east of Cusco, Vinicunca, the Rainbow Mountain, is a long day's trip, and the Ausangate massif rises behind.

On Lake Titicaca, boats from Puno visit the Uros floating reed islands, Taquile and Amantaní, with homestays on Amantaní and the Capachica peninsula. The burial towers of Sillustani stand by Lake Umayo. Apurímac has the carved Sayhuite stone, and Madre de Dios the Tambopata National Reserve, Lake Sandoval and part of Manu National Park.