Category Archives: diary

I’ve signed onto a 2-day excursion to visit the Canon del Colca. The Colca canyon is set amongst high volcanoes and is considered the second deepest canyon in the world. It ranks slightly less than the Canon del Citahuasi, also in Peru, and both are more than twice the depth of the Grand Canyon. TheContinue reading “Arequipa to Chivay (Saturday 8 October)”

My flight to Arequipa us painfully early, 6am! It’s the cheapest time to fly and I am flying again with Peruvian Airways. It’s an hour flight over an interesting rugged mountainous landscape that appears entirely treeless and desolate but obvious trails everywhere suggests life down there somewhere. If my plane decides to stop flying thereContinue reading “Lima to Arequipa (Friday)”

Peruvians like to sculpture signs and messages into the mountain sides. Cuzco us an Inca city and the evidence of this is in the buildings. Many of the buildings have the classic Inca-styled stonework base supporting Spanish architecture on top. It is a city of significance to the Incas, featuring in Inca legend and itContinue reading “Cuzco (Wednesday)”

‘To think that a civilization with the mind, desire and ability to create something of this magnitude could be completely destroyed by a civilization with purely materialistic ambitions is just wrong. Humanity took a giant step backwards that day.’ Angus McColl Matchupicchu means ‘big mountain’ and is a modern name given to the famous IncaContinue reading “Machupicchu (Tuesday)”

Today is the start of a 3-day bike/hike to Matchupicchu and back. It starts with a bike laden bus ride to a place called Abraham Malaga. The bus is a van and there are 13 of us with all our luggage packed in. I’m easily the oldest in the group by at least 20 yearsContinue reading “Cuzco to Santa Teresa (Sunday 2 October)”

Flying to Cuzco from Lima takes one hour. The other option is by bus, which takes a very rough 20 hours. I fly with Peruvian Airlines and arrive at 11.30am. Cuzco is up in the mountains and snugly fills the valleys and ridges 3,400 meters above sea level. Flying there gives you spectacular views ofContinue reading “Lima to Cusco (Friday)”