Inca Sacred Valley, Peru

Trip Description: (July 12 - 19, 1999)
We'll dayhike the spectacular Andean homeland of the Inca Empire which was centered around their capital city, Cusco. To give the group's low-landers time to acclimate to the lung-burning 3000 meter elevations, we'll spend several days culture-sifting. After being suitably impressed, we'll next explore the towns along the Urubamba River in the Inca's Sacred Valley. This portion of our trip will end at Ollantaytambo where we will spend two nights in a beautiful hotel proximate to this remarkable ruin site. The views of towering, snowcapped mountains from this deep river gorge should be stupendous. Our trip will finish with two days dayhiking around fabulous Machu Picchu from our Aguas Calientes hotel.
Many other Inca ruin sites will be visited in the Cusco and Urubamba valleys: Tipón, Pisac, Tambo Machay, Puca Pucara, Qénko, Sacsayhuaman, Chinchero, Q'ente, Ollantaytambo, Intipunku, and Huiñay Huayna, to name a few. We'll finish our trip by returning to Cusco on the afternoon train, arriving back at our hotels around dinner time. This trip is rated leisurely to moderate (L/M).
This will be a non-commercial, cost and work shared group travel trip (see our home page for additional information about our trips). All accommodations will be in hotels. The trip will be selectively limited to 12-13 people.
Originates @ Cusco, Peru.

Tambo Machay

Pisac Terraces

Pre-trip Supplemental Information:

We will rendezvous at a mid-priced hotel in Cusco. For convenience, we recommend that everyone stay at, or close by, the evening prior to the trip. The trip organizers will be there several days early and will be available to assist in resolving any problems which may arise when trip participants arrive. Cusco is the hub of the South American travel network. It has frequent air service to the capital, Lima, and from there to the USA. Participants might schedule a day at each end of the trip to see Lima's magnificent museums and to serve as a time buffer in the event of any luggage or flight connection snafus.

Because of the Andean elevations, some moderate days of acclimatization around Cusco will be followed by more strenuous dayhiking. Participants should be fit enough to dayhike to points of interest to maximize their enjoyment of the trip. Terrain will be mountainous with daily hiking mileage of five to eight miles. Since we will occasionally be in remote areas of a foreign country, participants should be in excellent health.

Information about our Cusco based travel agent and the budget-priced hotels we particularly liked are included on a separate page. We think your would be extremely satisfied with the services they offer.

Books about Peruvian culture and archaeological sites have recently become more available. A few that we have found to be interesting and helpful include:

1)	Peter Frost, Exploring Cusco, Nuevas Imágenes S. A., Lima, Peru, 1989.
1)	John Hemming, Conquest of the Incas, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Inc., New York, NY, 1970.
2)	Hans Hofer, Insight Guides Peru, Houghton Mifflen Co., Boston, MA, 1996.
3)	Dilwyn Jenkins, Peru, The Rough Guide, Penguin Books USA Inc., New York, NY, 1997.
4)	Rob Rachowiecki, Peru, A Lonely Planet Survival Kit, Lonely Planet Publications, Oakland, CA, 1996.

Trip Reports:

After a marvelous month of traveling in Peru in 1997, we returned home and wrote short reports about the two trips we organized. These reports are contained in that year's September and December quarterly newsletters. Susan also wrote a more detailed description of our Peru travels, which is available online. It includes thumbnails of many of our favorite photos.

* Machu Picchu, Peru (9/9/97-9/17/97)

* Machu Picchu, Peru (9/23/97-10/1/97)

* From Susan's Peru Journal, September 1997

We returned to Peru and the Inca Sacred Valley in 1999 and wrote short reports about the trip we organized there and our continuing adventures in the Lake Titicaca regions of Bolivia and Peru. These reports are contained in our September 1999 quarterly newsletter.

* Inca Sacred Valley, Peru (7/12/99-7/19/99)

* Bolivia and Peru (7/20/99-8/3/99)

No Más Picchu! (from Outside Magazine, August 2000)

Anybody out there intending to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, the sacred 500-year-old Incan City perched at 8,910 feet in the Andes? Listen up. On August 9, the Peruvian government will begin limiting foot traffic to 500 hikers per day on the busiest section of the trail-the 20 miles leading up to the ruins. Over 66,000 people use the trail annually, with more than 1,000 stomping on vegetation and generally wreaking havoc on any given summer day. To help finance maintenance, Machu Picchu pilgrims will be charged a trail-use fee of $50 per person (up from $17) and must also hook up with one of the 50-plus government-certified tour companies. Contact the South American Explorers Club (607) 277-0488 (www.samexplo.org) for policy updates and information on outfitters.