National Geographic Machu Picchu tour

By Mark Adams, composer of Turn Right at Machu Picchu

For many people to Peru, Machu Picchu is the first draw. But Peru is these types of an environmentally, topographically, and typically wealthy country that it’d be a waste traveling all that method without tacking on a supplementary day or three to comprehend a number of the country’s various other wonders.

1. Raft a Sacred River

The Andes tend to be veined with whitewater, the inescapable item of high mountains funneling glacial meltwater into tight canyons. Thus, Peru is a great place to go river rafting. A favorite place for paddling, the Urubamba River, that the Inca revered as a deity, operates through the Sacred Valley near Cusco and in the end winds in an omega shape around Machu Picchu. A normal travel on the Chuquicahuana stretch, a pleasant the main Upper Urubamba, features Class III rapids and will be performed as on a daily basis journey from Cusco. (eliminate downriver Urubamba trips, which go through a polluted portion of the river.) More daring paddlers can deal with the Class IV-V whitewater of Apurimac River. The translation of their name—“Great Speaker”—offers a hint of this roaring rapids that await.

2. Hike the Colca Canyon

No one’s completely sure exactly how deeply the Colca Canyon is, but researchers have determined that distance from its rim to its bottom steps a lot more than 10, 000 feet—twice the depth associated with the Grand Canyon. The Colca can be generally speaking decided to be very stunning places in the world. The immense space within those towering walls is filled up with some of South America’s most spectacular scenery: untouched valleys, pre-Columbian agricultural terraces still used, dormant volcanoes, and green oases. The vicuña, an inferior cousin associated with the llama, runs wild right here. The Colca’s calling card, though, is the majestic Andean condor, a bird whoever populations tend to be dwindling in other places but that is frequently spotted here at the mountain pass called Cruz del Condor. it is feasible to attain the Colca overland from Cusco, but the easiest method will be take a 45-minute flight to Arequipa, that also happens to be Peru’s many charming town.