September 24, 2018 – September 25, 2018
We headed away from Lake Titicaca, getting some last views of the huge sapphire lake as we climbed high into the surrounding countryside. We were driving to Tiwanaku, an important set of ruins in Bolivia, and a place that some consider to be the cradle of Andean culture.
September 8, 2018
We debated about whether to visit Machu Picchu or not. Dogs definitely are not allowed, either on the Inca trail or at the site, so that meant we needed to get back to the truck within the day and thus take the train to the site, which would be an expensive ride. They have now also changed the entrance rules: you buy a ticket for either the morning or the afternoon, and you are limited to 4 hours for your visit. We had read that the site would be crowded, and we were worried about getting there and being disappointed. In the end, we decided that we would likely never have a better opportunity to visit Machu Picchu, and that we would regret it if we didn’t go.
September 6, 2018 – September 9, 2018
Further down the Sacred Valley, in the direction of the famous Machu Picchu, lies the town of Ollantaytambo. We were going to use the town as our base for our train and bus journey to Machu Picchu, but the small village itself became one of our (many) favourite places in Peru.
September 4, 2018 – September 6, 2018
High above the market town of Pisac, sits the Inca fortress of the same name. From the townsite you can see bits of the ruin rising above the horizon, and many acres of ancient terraces stepping down the steep mountain sides. We were lucky to find a place to camp in the gated yard of a hostel just outside of town with great views of these terraces.
August 29, 2018 – September 4, 2018
Legend has it that the sun god, Inti, looked down on the world in the 12th century and decided that the people needed a leader. He created the first Inca (king), Manco Capac and his sister-wife Mama Occlo. The pair emerged from Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca. Inti gave Manco Capac a golden rod and told the pair to settle where Manco Capac was able to plunge the rod completely into the earth. This spot would become the navel of the earth (qosq’o in the Quechua language). And that is how Cusco got it’s name. The city has been inhabited ever since, making it the oldest continuously inhabited city in South America. It was the centre of the vast Inca empire and it was, and still is, the centre of Inca culture.
August 15, 2018 – August 17, 2018
We headed back to the coast. We would have preferred to stay in the mountains, but after seeing what the main highways could be like in the mountains, and seeing that the alternative mountain route to our next planned destination would take us onto secondary and tertiary roads, we decided to stick to some more developed highways even though it was a longer route.
August 12, 2018 – August 15, 2018
The Chachapoyas (Cloud People) began building the fortified city of Kuelap in the 6th century AD, 600 to 900 years before Machu Picchu. The walls surround an area of 584 metres by 110 metres, and reach heights of up to 20 metres. Inside are the ruins of circular homesteads and temples. The setting for this is the top of a remote mountain, 3,100 metres above sea level (about 700 metres higher than Machu Picchu), in northern Peru, providing incredible views of the surrounding valleys. So why have you maybe never heard of Kuelap? Well, until recently it was very difficult to get to, but a recent investment in a cable car has opened up the site, which some claim to be as important as the more famous Machu Picchu.
We crossed into Guatemala, worried that we would struggle with our spanish after having been in english speaking Belize for two weeks, but the words came back to us and the border crossing went very smoothly.
We headed towards Caracol, the largest Maya site in Belize. The road is rough and slow, so we planned to camp half way and then get to Caracol early the next day. Before setting up camp, we stopped at Rio On Pools and played in the water for a few hours.
(Somehow this post got out of order…it should have been prior to the one about Caracol…)
Xunantunich is an ancient Maya ruin close to the border of Guatemala. The road to Xunantunich was fun in that it included a ride on a hand cranked ferry across the river.