IMAGES: MATT CHERUBINO; ALAMY; GETTY


HIKE THE HEIGHTS


While the world-famous Inca Trail is undoutedly Peru’s headline hike, the Quarry Trail is a less-crowded alternative that’s just as rewarding


“We’ve reached the point of no return,” says my guide, Julio Llancay. It should sound ominous, but with that ever-present grin stretched across his face, it lands more like a punchline than a warning. I’m standing at 11,411ft on a dusty track in


the Sacred Valley, a few hours into the Quarry Trail. This 17-mile trek was created by Intrepid in collaboration with local Peruvians as a quieter, less-trodden alternative to the Inca Trail. Tomorrow, we’ll climb even higher, peaking at 14,600ft along a three-day route that winds its way up the mountainside above the historic town of Ollantaytambo. “Haku!” (‘Let’s go’) Julio gestures, ushering us


onwards past scenes of bucolic Peruvian life. Men bend low under straw bales and sleeping pigs snore along the trailside. Overhead, the brilliantly blue sky is punctuated by red limestone crags. As I carefully pick my way down a rocky slope,


Julio points out a series of small caves carved into the mountainside. This is Qory Song’o — or Golden Heart — a pre-Inca burial site where mummified bodies were once laid to rest. Scattered skulls still


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lie in the hollows, their empty eye sockets seeming to follow me as I pass. Julio explains that the pre-Incans deliberately shaped their skulls, elongating them from a young age. Some believe it was a spiritual practice to bring them closer to the astral plane, while others think it mirrored the shape of sacred glaciers or was simply seen as a way to increase brain capacity. I ponder this bizarre tradition as we continue,


the terrain evolving from cultivated farmland into mountain scrubland. Ahead, steep switchbacks climb towards the Perolniyoc Waterfall, a towering 165ft vessel transporting the glaciers’ lifeblood to the towns below. A dark shape wheels through the sky above


us as we reach Raqaypata, an impressive Inca village believed to have served as a military base, astrological observatory and religious site. Julio confirms it’s a condor, one of the largest flying birds in the world. Alongside pumas and snakes, condors formed a sacred animal triumvirate in Inca culture and were one reason black was a venerated colour — a symbol of eternity and the boundless night sky.


Their vast wingspans, sometimes stretching over ten feet, cast shadows that once stirred awe among Andean peoples. “These days, condors have a bit of a bad


reputation,” Julio reveals. “Locals think they kill their animals, but they’re actually just scavengers. It’s the pumas who kill.” That night, the sky is scattered with more stars


than I’ve ever seen, cut through by the cloudy wisp of the Milky Way. Known in the local Quechua language as mayu, meaning ‘river’, this luminous arc holds deep significance in Andean belief. It’s said to mirror the sacred rivers below, forming a balance between the heavens and the earth. I wake at 5.30am the next morning to a cold, dark


world and gratefully clutch the cocoa tea handed to me by one of the guides. Today, we face two miles of winding trails, climbing nearly 3,300ft to our first mountain pass, Puccaqasa. As the hike continues, the shifting elevation


transforms the landscape. Golden ichu grass thickens along the slopes, a hardy plant once used for rope and now a vital food source for the llamas


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