I was thrilled to have my friend Liz Demer visit last week! Liz and I go back to second grade and have been friends for about 35 years, even though we’ve rarely lived in the same country since high school. You should check out Liz’s art on her website! She makes the most creative coloring books for adults and other fun art. She also has a fulltime corporate job, so I planned her itinerary with plenty of down time. The woman works hard and needs to be able to relax on her vacation.

This was Liz’s first time in South America, and she wanted to do some hiking and see the sights. I know she’s not a fan of crowds, so I suggested that she skip Machu Picchu, and she agreed. The 8-day itinerary I designed for her still got her lots of Inca history and architecture, but without standing in long lines or getting dozens of strangers in all her photos.

Day 1: Cusco to Pisac

Liz was coming from Boise at 2,700 feet to Cusco at about 11,000 feet above sea level, so I decided to start her trip in the Sacred Valley. She spent enough time in Cusco to stop by my apartment, go to an Atm and walk through my neighborhood market. Just walking at a normal pace on flat ground made her dizzy with the lack of oxygen. If you’re planning your first trip to somewhere that’s over 10,000 feet, take the altitude seriously! It doesn’t hit everybody the same, but the lack of oxygen will mess with you somehow.

So, as soon as we could, I got her in a van to Pisac, which is at 9,796 feet above sea level. Yes, that’s still very high compared to Boise, but it’s still easier to acclimate in the Sacred Valley than to start a trip in Cusco. I’m pretty good at knowing the elevations of places in Peru but not great with elevations in the US. I’d heard that Denver was also at high elevation, and I tried to reassure Liz that Pisac wasn’t too high by saying that it was probably like Denver. When we checked the math, it turns out that Pisac is almost twice as high as Denver. My bad. (Yes, I’ve been to Denver and no I didn’t notice the altitude when I was there). 

After flying from Lima to Cusco, walking around Cusco a bit, having lunch, taking a van to Pisac and walking around some more, Liz was exhausted, so we had pizza and called it a day. (The best pizza in Pisac is at Antica Osteria across from the market).

Day 2: Hiking Pisac

This was the day we tested if we were ready for the hike we planned for the last day of Liz’s trip: Waqra Pukará. The hike from the main square of Pisac up to the Pisac archeological site isn’t far but it’s all up and then all down. We gained about 1,300 feet of elevation between the modern town in the valley and the ancient Inca town up above – and it’s mostly stairs. It’s a beautiful hike and the best way to visit the archeological site, but not easy at all.

I recommend that people visit the Pisac ruins by starting in town because on the way up you go through the original entrance to the archeological site. There’s a half circle of buildings just before you get to the top with several sacred doorways that were clearly made for the royal family, not for commoners. After you pass through those doorways, you arrive at the Intihuatana, the most sacred place in Pisac and some archeologists say the most sacred place in the whole Sacred Valley. (An Intihuatana is where the Inca believed that the sun attached itself to the earth). It’s truly astounding to arrive there and see how perfect the buildings still are, after centuries of neglect and countless earthquakes. The Inca had good engineers. Read my Pisac blog for more information on the site.

Liz entirely missed the crowds because when we were starting the hike was when tourists on the Sacred Valley tour arrive up at the top and get about an hour to see 20% of the site, then are whisked off for lunch in Urubamba and an afternoon visit to the Ollantaytambo archeological site. By the time we hiked past the Intihuatana up the ridge to the top, it was afternoon and the tourists were gone. We started at 9:30 and didn’t get back down to town until 3pm. If you want to see everything that there is to see in Pisac, you can’t really do it in any less than four or five hours.

Day 3: Pisac to Ollantaytambo

We weren’t in a hurry to get to Ollantaytambo, so after breakfast we walked back to the market and that’s when Liz got her photo op with a couple lambs and two alpacas. These were pets, not farm animals, freshly shampooed and dressed in their finest. (Before you judge their colorful outfits, Quecha people have dressed up their pets for centuries. There’s an ancient holiday for giving your alpaca new necklaces and earrings. It’s part of their culture, not just a ploy for tourists. People in Cusco dress up their dogs in the absence of pet alpacas. Just check out the Cusco Sweater Dogs IG).

When we were ready to hit the road, we just stepped out into the road to wait for a van to pass by. The Sacred Valley has only one road that goes from Pisac to Ollantaytambo, so if you stand on the right side of the road, any vehicle that stops will be going where you want to go. Unfortunately, there aren’t any van or bus routes that do the whole valley, so we rode from Pisac to Urubamba and switched to a second van to Ollantaytambo. The trip took almost three hours and Liz got to see the valley end to end.

After a delicious lunch at Chuncho, we hiked up to Pinkuylluna. This was a cake walk compared to the Pisac hike but we were both still pretty sore and walking slowly. Read my Pinkuylluna blog here. After the hike we stopped for a drink at Alqa and then went to see the guinea pigs at the Casa de Cuy. At the Casa de Cuy, you can pet and feed guinea pigs, and also eat roasted guinea pig. (Before you judge, it’s a traditional Andean food and an important part of local culture that links them with their Inca ancestors).

Day 4: Ollantaytambo

After a leisurely breakfast, we walked over to the Ollantaytambo archeological site, which most people visit in the afternoon as the last stop on a Sacred Valley tour. Afternoons in Ollantaytambo are crowded and windy. Mornings are uncrowded and calm, which I find much more pleasant. In the afternoon there are long lines of tourists waiting for their turn to take a photo in the doorway above - and they always get other tourists in the shot.

Liz and I hiked up the terraces, visited the temples at the top, then hiked up another 20 minutes or so to the Incahuatana. The Pisac Intihuatana was where the sun (Inti) attaches itself to the earth and the Incahuatana is where the Inca was attached to the earth. That didn’t make any sense to me until I visited earlier this year with archeologist Óscar Montúfar, who pointed out the niches where mummies, presumably of Incas, would have been attached to the walls.

The tour still wasn’t over, and I took Liz through everything that I’d learned from Óscar about the extensive buildings on the flat areas just upstream from the more well-trodden part of the site. Read my full Ollantaytambo blog here. We spent about three hours at the archeological site, and I don’t think you can reasonably see everything that’s worth seeing in less time.

The rest of the day we enjoyed the town at a leisurely pace. Ollantaytambo has about 40 archeological sites, according to Óscar, most of which are small, like a doorway or a canal. The town has so much original Inca architecture that I think they should call the whole thing an archeological site, though I understand that would complicate things for residents.

Day 5: Ollantaytambo to Cusco

That morning, we walked to the main square and got in a shared cab for Cusco. The easiest way to get around Cusco and the Sacred Valley is with vans, which function as busses, or with shared taxis. Liz and I each paid for a seat and the other two seats were taken by a young couple with their 2-year-old who slept the whole way. I love how well Peruvians can sleep in any form of transportation.

We still got to Cusco too early for Liz to check into her hotel, so we walked around San Blas a bit and had hot chocolate at Xapiri Ground, my favorite art gallery in Cusco. After we checked her in, we had lunch at La Bohème and then went to the Pre-Columbian Art Museum, my favorite museum in Cusco. Since Liz is an artist, I was excited to see what she would think of my favorite gallery and museum, and I’m happy to report that she loved them. We walked around the plazas some and did a little shopping, got her signed up for a tour the next day, then went for dinner at Casalino for my favorite pesto pizza.

Day 6: Cusco City Tour

This was Liz’s day to get a break from me, to spend time with an official tour guide, and for me to get a little work done at home. She had a relaxing morning and got a massage at her hotel, then spend the afternoon on the city tour, which is only partly in the city.

The Cusco City Tour, as it’s sold, starts in the main square at the cathedral, then walkes a few blocks to the Qorikancha. (Read my Qorikancha blog here). After those two sites the tour leaves Cusco and heads up into the hills above town to see Sacsayhuamán, Q’enqo, Puka Pukará and Tambomachay. (Read my Sacsayhuamán blog here). Afterwards, Liz reported that she learned a lot and thought it was a great tour.

Day 7: Cusco to Sangarará

I picked Liz up at 10am and took her to the bus station for our trip to Sangarará. (I wrote a blog earlier this year about an the Unu Raymi celebration in Sangarará and a couple years ago a blog about the history of rebellions in Sangarará). It’s my favorite rural village in Peru, so small it doesn’t have a gas station or a grocery store and the school is at risk of closing due to a lack of students. It does have a bull ring, used once a year for bull fighting. Bulls aren’t killed in Peruvian bull fighting, just taunted and run around till they get tired. Sangarará also has a very historic church and is the home of Tomasa Tito Condemayta, who I wrote about with my friend Steve Hirst in my first BBC piece.

Day 8: Waqra Pukará to Cusco to Lima

The last day of Liz’s trip was by far the biggest. We woke up early to hike up to Waqra Pukará and be able to get back to Sangarará for the 3:30 bus back to Cusco so we could have dinner before we caught the plane to Lima. Liz went back to the US, and I stayed in Lima for a tourism trade show called Peru Travel Mart.

For the start of the rainy season, I was a bit nervous about the weather, but we had a perfect day. It was sunny as we started out at the trailhead at 14,764ft (4,500m). That’s one of the reasons we came the night before, to sleep in Sangarará since it’s at a higher altitude than Cusco and acclimating would help us on the hike. The other reason is so that we could wake up only half an hour from the trailhead. (Some tour companies run this as a day trip from Cusco which I think is crazy).

From the start we saw herd after herd of vicuña, which just blew me away. This was my fourth time hiking to Waqra Pukará and Liz saw by far way more vicuña than I’d seen on my three previous trips together. Liz got even better weather and more wildlife than I had hoped for. It was such a perfect day that she said it was worth the whole trip to Peru. It was the best end I could have dreamed of for Liz’s trip. I was so happy to have been able to share my love of Peru with her and to see her thoroughly enjoy every day.

To learn about the vicuña, read this article I wrote for The Long Now and to learn more about the archeological site, read my Waqra Pukará blog.

The bus came right at 3:30, we were able to get dinner and showers in Cusco, then our flight to Lima was on time and I left Liz at the Latam desk in the airport to check in for her overnight flight to the US. With so many moving parts that day, I was thankful everything was on time.

If you’re planning a trip to Cusco, don’t miss my Cusco Travel Tips blog. If you want a 7-day itinerary with less hiking and more birding, read my 7-day Cusco blog. You’ll notice that neither of these itineraries has Machu Picchu and that’s because it’s not the right place for everybody. There are a lot of amazing places that are just as beautiful and historic as Machu Picchu. Liz got to see two of my three favorite Machu Picchu alternatives that I wrote about for Frommer’s. Want more travel tips? Subscribe to my newsletter!