A day in Lima before flying to Cusco, which has an unexpected European feel to it – colonial buildings sitting directly on Inca foundations. A chocolate-making class at ChocoMuseo, then a textile workshop where the weavers use techniques and natural dyes that have not changed in centuries, and where you try it yourself. A day on horseback out from a local ranch.
Into the Sacred Valley next, in a small cluster of individual huts. From there a stretch of the Inca Trail on foot, about ten kilometres, into Machu Picchu. The precision of how the stone was cut and set, without machinery, holds up under close inspection. Cusco was the empire's capital, and this stretch of the trip is a look at what is left of it.
A few days in the hills after, then the coast at Paracas. Sand, quiet, the wind-down.
