Journey 02 · Peru
Every Wall Is a Market
Cusco and the Sacred Valley
Published 26 Sept 2025 · Travelled 30 Aug – 9 Sept 2025
- 8 moments
- 11 days
- 71 km
- Summer
- Peru
- 18.3mm · f/5.6 · 1/400
- 13.5153° S, 71.9760° W
- Calle Hatun Rumiyoc
- 09:30
- 12°C, thin sun
Everyone tells you to take the first day gently at 3,400 metres, and the streets agree — all of them tilt. Balconies lean over the lane and the kerbstones are Inca at the bottom and Spanish from the waist up. I shot from the shade because the sun here has opinions.
- 18.3mm · f/4 · 1/500
- 13.5158° S, 71.9768° W
- Cuesta de San Blas
- 10:05
- 14°C, sun
Two women in layered skirts climbed the lane with their carrying cloths knotted at the chest, talking the whole way, never slowing. I was going downhill, empty-handed, breathing like a kettle. The street photographer's oldest embarrassment: everyone in the frame is working harder than you.
Overheard · Calle Puputi · 07:45
"Full means full. Full does not mean there is no more room." He was right; four more people got in.
- Triptych
- Mercado de Pisac
- 09:50
- 18°C, sun
- 18.3mm · f/4 · 1/320
- 13.4222° S, 71.8470° W
- 18.3mm · f/4 · 1/320
- 13.4222° S, 71.8470° W
- 18.3mm · f/4 · 1/320
- 13.4222° S, 71.8470° W
The market unpacks itself into the plaza like a magician's suitcase — textiles, silver, drinks in colours that don't occur locally, a woman ladling something excellent out of a pot balanced on a crate. I bought choclo, a weaving, and a photograph each time by standing still and being patient. Only the corn was priced honestly, and only the corn was warm.
- 18.3mm · f/8 · 1/800
- 13.3010° S, 72.1490° W
- Salineras de Maras
- 11:40
- 20°C, glare
Thousands of salt pans terraced down a hillside, every one owned by a family, every one a slightly different white. A man was raking his pan flat with the care of someone making a bed for a guest. The spring that feeds them has been salty for longer than anyone has records.
- 18.3mm · f/8 · 1/500
- 13.3296° S, 72.1963° W
- Moray
- 14:20
- 17°C, cloud building
Concentric terraces sunk into the earth like a green ear listening to the sky. Each ring has its own temperature, which is either ancient crop science or the world's most beautiful spreadsheet. A guide told her group it was 'probably ceremonial', which I've learned is Andean for 'we also don't know'.
shot from the rim. going down is easy. coming up is a decision.
- Moving image
- Ollantaytambo station
- 16:35
- 15°C, overcast
Ollantaytambo · 16:35
The valley narrows until the river, the rails and the road are braided into one channel. The train came through Ollantaytambo slow and enormous, scattering dogs. I shot it in black and white because the engine was the only thing in Peru not wearing colour.
- Ollantaytambo
- 17:50
- 13°C, clearing
- Last frame
The town still runs on its Inca street plan — water in stone channels, walls that have shrugged off five centuries of earthquakes and tour buses. On the last evening a man leaned on a wall his ancestors built and watched me photograph the mountains like I'd invented slowness. Ten days here and the valley had finally got me walking at its speed.
- 18.3mm · f/5.6 · 1/320
- 13.2588° S, 72.2634° W
The route
8 stops
Journey completed
Eleven days, eight stories
- Distance walked
- 96 km
- Frames exposed
- 1210
- Metres above Chennai
- 3,399
- Days before stairs stopped being an event
- 4
- Textiles bought after swearing not to
- 3
- Favourite moment
- The train guard who held my camera to the window and took a better frame than I had all day
- Best food
- Choclo con queso from a window in Pisac — corn kernels the size of thumbnails
