Southern Peru: Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Inca Trail, Nazca Plains, Lake Titicaca

Southern Peru

Cuzco, Machu Picchu, and the Inca Trail

La Casona - Cuzco

Location: Cuzco
Style: Boutique Suites
# of Rooms: 11

Inca Trails

Location: Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
Style: Trekking and camping with porters
# of Rooms: Tents and Hotels

Southern Peru was the heart of the Incan empire, and the location of its ancient capital city of Cuzco. 65km west of Cuzco is Machu Picchu at 2,430 meters elevation. It is famous as "The Lost City of the Incas" since it was unknown to the outside world before 1911. Just 100km west of Cuzco is the start of Peruvian Amazonia, including the Tambopata National Reserve near Puerto Maldonado. Some of the most beautiful and remote parts of the Amazon basin are there, with an amazing diversity of animals and plants. On the southern coast of Peru lie the Nazca plains, with hundreds of mysterious, gigantic geoglyphs, only discovered in the 1930s. On Peru's southern border with Bolivia is Lake Titicaca, the largest freshwater lake in South America and the world's highest navigable body of water. The lake is home to numerous rare species, and also the Uros people who live on artificial floating islands on the lake.

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