0Cusco, Peru
20th October 2007
Pinnacle
It rained overnight. Heavily. The stickiness that lingered well into the evening had dissipated by this morning, and with it, my fever. I didn’t feel tip-top, but I was definitely feeling better. I am inclined to say that most of the credit for this went to the antibiotics I started taking yesterday; yet I am willing to apportion some credit to the burning desire to see Machu Picchu before returning to Cusco this afternoon, and to the sound of my family’s voices from half a world away the night before.
0Cusco, Peru
17th October 2007
The Sacred Valley
As much as I loved the Cordillera Blanca, the main attraction for me was always going to be the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu in particular. Each day was another step toward that pinnacle, and today was to be something of a preview of the days to come in more ways than I’d imagined. We were going on a day tour to visit Pisaq and Ollantaytambo as the key attractions in the Sacred Valley.
0Cusco, Peru
16th October 2007
Epicentre
As we swept in over Cusco, we saw the entire city spread along the valley floor and smeared across the slopes of the surrounding mountains. In its original design, the capital of the Incas had been laid out to represent the image of a Puma. The spread of the city, now fattened by the tourist traffic to Machu Picchu, has long since distorted this image beyond the original design, but I couldn’t help but look for the identifying points that formed the outline.