Welcome to the Land of the Incas

The Inca Empire — Tawantinsuyu, meaning “Four Quarters of the World” — once stretched 4,000 kilometers along the spine of the Andes, from present-day Colombia to central Chile. It was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, connected by a network of roads that would put Roman engineers to shame. At its heart sat Cusco, the imperial capital, perched at 3,400 meters above sea level. The Quechua name Qosqo means “navel of the world,” and the Inca planned the entire city in the shape of a puma.

High in the mountains above the Sacred Valley, the Inca built something extraordinary: a citadel so perfectly hidden in the cloud forest that the Spanish conquistadors — who toppled the empire and stripped gold from every temple they found — never discovered it. For centuries Machu Picchu slept under a canopy of vines and moss, known only to local farmers, until an American explorer named Hiram Bingham stumbled upon it in 1911, guided by an eleven-year-old boy.

Today we follow the ancient path from Cusco through the Sacred Valley, board a train that hugs the Urubamba River through cloud forest, and climb to the citadel in the clouds. Along the way we will touch stones so precisely carved that no blade fits between them, stand in temples aligned with the solstice sun, and discover why this place was voted one of the New Seven Wonders of the World. Let’s go — or as the Quechua say, ¡Hakuchik!