Pan-American Transmissions: Part 9 “Pan-American Transmissions” is a travel series from Special Contributor Diego Cupolo as he travels south from Nicaragua to Argentina. He has few plans, a $10-a-day budget and one flute-playing gypsy companion. Check back as new dispatches are posted from the road. “Don’t go, it’s ugly. Nothing [...]

To help accommodate the one million-plus visitors who visit Machu Picchu every year (up 30% in 2011 alone), the government of Peru has announced the construction of a new USD$460 million international airport near Cusco.

The air is cold and clear at night. Small, white puffs of smoke float drearily away from my lips, relenting to the frigid temperature. As I stare up at the brightly dotted night sky, I see something that grips my senses: The moon rising over a mountain peak. The mountains [...]

James Gilland is the marketing coordinator at AdventureLink.com and associate editor of its blog. AdventureLink is a site that helps travelers find and book the world’s best adventure trips. For more information about visiting Machu Picchu, visit AdventureLink’s Machu Picchu tours page. 1) Machu Picchu Was Never Actually Finished Archaeologists [...]

The world is ripe with parties and festivals, each with its own unique flavor of the local culture, cuisine, love and dance. This month’s photo contest, chosen from our Flickr group, was a celebration of travel through partying. Our winning shot comes from the Inti Raymi Festival in Cusco, Peru. This [...]

What makes a place? Is it the food, the drink, the clothing? The winning shot from this past month’s Flickr photo contest suggests a definitive answer: people. Though culture can be defined by so many things, it is passed on and embodied by those within. Congratulations to Filippo Tafi and [...]

Travelers have been visiting Machu Picchu for 100 years now, ever since Yale University professor Hiram Bingham III rediscovered the site on July 24, 1911. But with increased traffic, site degradation, and bureaucratic wrangling, many are left wondering: How much longer will visitors be able to visit Machu Picchu? Much [...]

The rain sounded different to Cusco rain. Fatter, wetter somehow, the decadent splatter of water on leaf. The drugs had me pinned between an exhausted indifference to whatever may have been crawling through the holes in walls and window screens, and a lurid imagining of too-many-legged tarantulas seeking escape from [...]

The high season for Machu Picchu is roughly June through September, as summer travelers use their vacation time to explore the ruins in the predictably good weather these months bring. In October the rainy season begins, not a great time to trek along narrow paths and camp outside. Oddly enough, [...]

Let me just start by saying that when I was a kid, I had Guinea pigs as pets. Those Guinea pigs had babies. Those babies then had babies with their parents. Those babies had an odd number of limbs. Regardless of my pet’s incestuous behavior, I loved them. When my [...]