The beautiful city of Cuzco was once the foremost city of the Inca Empire and is now the undisputed archaeological capital of the Americas. Massive Inca-built walls line the city's central streets and form the foundations of both colonial and modern buildings.
 

Los Ninos Hotel

The hotel we stayed at comes with a story. It was set up in 1997 by a Dutch woman to support local homeless street children in Cuzco. It has been very successful and the profits from the hotel and a sister hotel provide for the food health and educational needs of over 500 children. The hotel is located about 10 minutes walk from the Plaza de Armas.  A colonial building with an attractive courtyard gives the hotel a wonderful feeling of space and tranquillity. Rooms are simple but very pleasant and named after some of the first children the charity helped. We really enjoyed staying here and could not imagine anything better in Cuzco.
 

Around Cuzco

Four Inca ruins are situated close to Cuzco - Sacsayhuaman, Qenko, Puca Pucara and Tambo Machay.
 

Tambo Machay

This is the site furthest from Cuzco and consists of a beautifully wrought ceremonial stone bath channelling crystalline spring water fountains that still function today. Speculative theories link the site to an Inca water cult.
 

Puca Pucara

Just across the main road from Tambo Machay is the commanding fortress structure of Puca Pucara with wonderful views down the Cuzco valley.
 

Qenko

Lower down the hillside is the shrine of Qenko. It consists of a large limestone rock riddled with niches, steps, extraordinary symbolic carvings and channels. These channels were probably used for the blood from ritual sacrifices. 
 

Sacsayhuaman

These immense ruins of both religious and military significance are the most impressive in the immediate Cuzco area. About 20% of the original structure remains since many walls were torn down to build houses in Cuzco, leaving the largest and most impressive rocks forming the main battlements.

The most striking feature is the magnificent, three tiered zigzag fortifications - one stone estimated to weigh more than 300 tonnes. The Incas envisioned Cuzco in the shape of a puma with Sacsayhuaman as the head and these 22 zigzagged walls form the teeth the of the puma. We came to the site later on in the afternoon. The sun was setting and casting a set of wonderful shadows across the battlements.
 

Sacred Valley

The beautiful Urubamba valley, popularly called El Valle Sagrado or the Sacred Valley runs north west from Cuzco and was one of the agricultural power houses of the Inca Empire with a pleasant sheltered climate and fertile soil.

We spent two days touring through the Valley enjoying the wide open skies and the amazing Inca ruins.
 

Ollantaytambo

The village of Ollantaytambo is dominated by the massive Inca fortress above. The spectacular steep terraces of the Inca complex mark one of the few places where the conquistadors lost a major battle. As well as a fortress the site was also used as a temple, with huge blocks of stone transported to the top of the terracing. The massive rocks were quarried 6km away and transported to the site by the sweat and bloods of thousands of Indian workers.
 

Pisac Market

For most of the week, Pisac is a quiet rural Andean village. The village however comes to life on Sunday when the weekly market takes over the town. Locals, many traditionally dressed, travel for miles, bringing local produce and colourful artisan crafts.
 

Inca Pisac

High above Pisac lies a truly spectacular collection of Inca citadels with agricultural terracing sweeping around the flanks of the mountain in huge and graceful curves. Above the terraces we followed a cliff hugging footpath complete with massive stone doorways, steep stairs and short tunnel carved out of the rock.
 

Salinas

Near the village of Tarabamba lies an area of thousands of salt pans that have been used for salt extraction since  Inca times. A hot spring from the top of the valley discharges a small stream of heavily salt-laden water which is diverted into salt pans and evaporated to produce a salt used for cattle licks.
 

Moray

Having seen pictures of the deep amphitheatre-like terracing of Moray before we came to Peru on a television programme we were keen to visit this site. Different levels of concentric terraces are carved into a huge bowl, each layer of which apparently has its own microclimate, according to how deep into the bowl it is. It is speculated that the Incas used the site as a crop laboratory to determine optimal conditions for each species. The bowl had been planted with various potato varieties as a kind of living museum.