Cusco’s main square, the Plaza de Armas. The cathedral (left) and church date from the mid-1500s.
One of countless processions makes it way around the plaza.
Cusco alley with original monumental Inca stonework incorporated into the walls.
A typical Cusco street/alley. The city is a Stairmaster routine, at 11,000+ feet in elevation. Plus cobblestones. Wear good shoes.
Churches.
Cusco.
Cobblestone street gives way to steep staircase.
Inca stonework. Note how every piece is shaped.
Cusco farmers market, native potato division.
Farmers grow more than 4,000 varieties of potatoes in Peru. After two weeks of tater-centric meals, we still have about 3,990 left to try.
Weavers from the countryside selling textiles in a Cusco market.
The colonial church of Santo Domingo, incorporating monumental Inca stonework from the Koriancha palace as a foundation. The city is an architectural mosaic crafted from hand-hewn rock.
Llamas grazing amid the ruins of Sacsayhuaman.
Sacsayhuaman stonework after a brief storm.
Old and new in an artisans commune in the village of Mollepata.
Mollepata weaver.
Street scene in Mollepata, last "urban" outpost before the Salkantay trailhead.
The "9-1-1" horse on our trek -- there to haul spare water and carry your daypack in case the altitude becomes too debilitating.
Humantay (left) and Salkantay peaks from the trail. Salkantay is 20,500 feet.
Salkantay.
The view from Salkantay Lodge, destination on first day of the trek..
Humantay Lake, at nearly 14,000 feet. Are we smiling? Or gasping?
Glaciers above Humantay Lake.
Hernán accompanied us on the hike to Humantay Lake, where he performed an Inca ceremony honoring the sacred landscape and asking for its blessing on behalf of a bunch of tired, out-of-breath hikers.
Traffic jam on the Salkantay Pass (15,213 feet) trail.
Sunrise prep for the descent from Wayra Lodge (elevation 12,812 feet) to Colpa Lodge (9,414).
Farmer and harvest in the Santa Teresa River Valley. Much of the corn is destined for production of chicha, the local beer.
Bromeliads are a common sight in the lush vegetation at lower elevations.
Mud bricks, a common construction material in rural areas, drying in the sun near the village of Lucmabamba.
Machu Picchu from the west, seen from the Inca trail over Llactapata Pass.
View of Machu Picchu framed by a doorway in the ruins of Llactapata, a contemporaneous Inca complex.
Machu Picchu greeter.
Machu Picchu.
"Bridge" on the Inca Trail leading to Machu Picchu.
Rock and roll.
Machu Picchu can be a bit of a madhouse in the morning, but the crowds dwindle by late afternoon.
Landscape maintenance crew.
The terraces were used to grow crops. So, yeah, you're basically looking at an urban rooftop farm, 16th-century version.
Machu Picchu from the east, at the Sun Gate on the original Inca trail.
Pre-Inca ruins at Pachacamac, on the coast south of Lima. The complex is huge, and pre-dates the Inca period by more than 1,000 years.
Looters have ravaged the site, digging up mummy bundles, plundering them for artifacts, and leaving bone and textile fragments scattered across the surface.
