Sacred Valley, Peru travel guide – The YEH, MEH, NAHs
If Machu Picchu vanished, retrieved by Incan extra-terrestrials, the Sacred Valley would still be a top Peru destination. We visited in mid-March, at the tail end of Peru’s rainy season. I can’t imagine a better time to visit. The valley…
The hills are alive with the sound of pan flute
“Where’s. That. Music. Coming. From?” I ask Todd as we pause our up up uphill hike to the ruins over Pisac, Peru. “Do you. See. Anyone?” “Nope.” “Wait. Is that, pan flute? It is. Ugh, pan flute!”
Drawing of drinkers at a nameless Pisac bar
After a long, hot day spent exploring the old town of Pisac, Peru, I persuade Lauren to share a beer with me at a nameless bar. At the next table, four men laugh hard and loud together. Their accents and…
Cebollas y choclo at the Pisac Sunday Market
Some people like to window shop on chic urban streets, imagining themselves rocking an outfit worn by a headless anorexic mannequin. Me, I prefer to un-window shop (hush, you try to figure out an antonym of “window”) out in the…
Eating on the cheap at the Pisac Sunday Market
I can’t recall how we got the notion in our heads, but Peru is not a bargain travel destination. After a few too many expensive and yet disappointing restaurant meals, Todd and I are thrilled by the food stalls at…
Drawing of the produce women at the Sunday Pisac Market, Peru
There’s perhaps no more famous market in South America than Pisac’s Sunday Market. The touristy tchotchkes, fake alpaca scarves, and mass-produced blankets were not all that interesting. But, the part of the market where women sold produce they’d hauled down…
Ever in motion on bargained time
At the crossroads to Maras, it’s just us versus one understandably smug taxi driver named David. With no competition or civilization in sight, we abandon all hope of negotiating a lower fare. Instead, we do what we wish we could…
Salty promises at the Salineras of Maras, Peru
In the late afternoon at the end of a very wet rainy season, the tiered pocitos at the Salineras of Maras, Peru are empty of workers. The frequent cloud bursts have kept the evaporation in check that would otherwise coat…
Cairns for Moray’s Incan engineers
I’ve always liked concentric circles. I don’t really know why. Perhaps it’s a preference I developed during my formative years, spent surrounded by the lingering psychedelic style of the late 1970s. Maybe it’s more about how the shape simultaneously shows…
Chasing Incan kings through small town streets
If the internet is to be believed, Ollantaytambo, Peru is home to a mere 2,000 people. Each day, at least that many tourists hit the cobblestone streets to visit the town’s impressive Incan temple ruins, to set off by trail…
