Machu Picchu's Sacred Sister Emerges From Peru Cloud Forest
- Hidden Inca citadel spearheads Peru’s drive for more tourists
- Government building road and cable car to mountain refuge
The iconic 15th century Inca citadel Machu Picchu attracts more than a million visitors a year to the cloud forests of southern Peru. Sixty kilometers away, another mountaintop refuge built by the Incas 50 years later has languished in obscurity, with barely a dozen visitors a day. The government wants that to change.
The South American nation plans to open up Choquequirao –- known as Machu Picchu’s Sacred Sister -- to the tourist mainstream with roads connecting the site to its world famous predecessor, and a cable car to elevate visitors to 3,000 meters (9,843 feet) above sea level, said Roger Valencia, deputy tourism minister. The excursion is currently a five-day, 60-kilometer round trip on foot, traversing a canyon and crossing the raging Apurimac River.