DESTINATIONS PERU | ESCORTED TOURS


Mountain high


A team from across the travel industry took on a trek to w travelweekly.co.uk


Peru’s lesser-known lost city in search of a quieter alternative to Machu Picchu. Joanna Booth joined the group


e sit in a line along the hilltop’s encircling wall, overlooking the whole of the lost city of Choquequirao, and no one says


a word. The travel industry doesn’t, as a rule, attract quiet and retiring types. That is certainly true of this year’s G for Good charity trek team, a group drawn from across the industry to take on G Adventures’ annual fundraising initiative. We’ve all been chattering cheerfully as we hike


the route, crossing streams, clambering down steep descents through thick jungle and puffing our way up stony slopes. But as we gather on this lofty, level-topped summit once used for spiritual ceremonies, wisps of cloud billow mystically across the ancient Inca site hewn into the hillside before us. There’s a collective sense of wonder here that renders us all speechless.


THE OTHER LOST CITY You probably haven’t heard of Choquequirao. The Peruvian lost-city limelight is taken up almost exclusively by Machu Picchu, the elaborate 15th-century citadel ringed by Andean peaks about 50 miles northwest of Cusco, the city that marks the starting point for most of the destination’s hiking routes. Considered one of the


seven wonders of the modern world, Machu Picchu’s visitor numbers hit 1.5 million each year. Only 31 miles away from Machu Picchu as the


crow flies, Choquequirao is folded into a spur of the Vilcabamba mountain range, an Inca site of a similar vintage to its more famous sibling and potentially – it’s only partially excavated – three times the size. Yet our guides estimate that only about 5,000 people visit a year – the same as Machu Picchu might receive on a busy day.


Wisps of cloud billow mystically


across the ancient Inca site hewn into the hillside before us. A sense of wonder renders us all speechless


As we explore the site, we see only one other group, and for much of our time we’re alone. We wander freely in and out of the long, rectangular buildings around the main plaza, descend the steep agricultural terraces to see white llama murals picked out in the stone walls, and hike to the highest point of the city from where ²


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