Culture, canyons and condors
Early one morning in May 2018, we stood on a mountain ridge in Peru, surrounded by even higher summits. Everything was green and mist swirled around, lifting slightly every now and then to give us a glimpse of the valleys and the river far below. We were vaguely aware of other tourists milling about the ruins, but we were spellbound by the magical setting and the resolve of the Inca empire to build a temple of rocks in such a remote location.
Welcome to Machu Picchu.
The Andes range is the spine of Peru, with 37 peaks higher than 6 000 m. (By comparison, the highest point in southern Africa is Thabana Ntlenyana in Lesotho at “only” 3 482 m.) In this inhospitable landscape of deep valleys and snow-capped volcanoes lies a rich history of ancient civilisations that have blended with Spanish influences into the modern nation of Peru.
Peru is slightly bigger than South Africa and has three distinct geographic areas: desert along the 3 000 km coastline – an extension of the Atacama; the Andes rising a mere 100 km inland; and rainforest at the base of the mountains another 100 km further to the east. Here, rivers course through tropical thickets to feed the tributaries of the mightiest river of them all, the Amazon.
The belly button of the world
We had arrived in Cusco a week previously – the oldest
