Peru Guide
Around Cusco
The Cusco region is one of Peru's most exciting areas. There's a huge number of villages and sites to stimulate the energetic traveller with more than a week to spend. The Instituto Nacional de Cultura in Cusco has identified no fewer than 36,000 known archaeological sites in this region.
Chinchero, an old colonial settlement resting on Inca foundations overlooking the Sacred Valley and boasting a spectacular market, is only forty minutes' drive northwest of the city of Cusco. To the northeast, towards the jungle, the attractive village of Paucartambo, built in colonial style and famous for its annual festival, nestles among breathtakingly high Andean panoramas close to Tres Cruces, a remote mountain spot where locals and globetrotters alike go to experience a uniquely spectacular sun rising from the depths of lowland Amazonia. To the south lie the superb ruins of Tipón, Pikillacta, Raqchi and Rumicolca, the rustic and legendary village of Urcos, as well as superb trekking country around the sacred Nevada Ausangate glaciers (6384m) between the small settlement of Ocongate and the larger town of Sicuani.