Everyone who has travelled a bit knows that every single journey has something special to be remembered for.
As usual, today I'm going to tell a story that has never been told before and never will be again.
It's the story of a journey in a charming land where after just a few weeks you feel like you've been there for months.
It's the story of a land where one can't tell dreams from reality
and it's the story of a strange coincidence too.
"I just realized that this journey's going to be special. It's going to be my bachelor party!"
It's the story of my journey in Peru.
"They didn't know that!"
PERU
"A six months' journey"
(ENG SUB by Chiara Costantino)
Peru is one of the biggest countries in South America, here live 31 millions of people
and there are climate conditions of all sorts due to its unique geography.
There's a desert coastline right in front of the sea, then the Andes (some mountains are up to 6000mt high),
and then again flatland, deserts and the most renowned rainforest of them all: the Amazon rainforest.
As a consequence of what "conquistadores" have done, Spanish is the first language but many communities still speak
some ancient languages like Aymara and Quechua (which is not the camping tents' brand; in fact it's the name of Incas' mothertongue)
Incas' legacy is what makes this place one of the most charming ones in the whole world.
but let's proceed with order.
you obviously have to take a plane to Peru, you fly over the Andes and then land in Lima, the capital city.
"Here in Lima the weather's a bit gloomy but it's always pleasing to see yourself as a brand"
Lima is basically unique for three things: 1) a delightful view of the overhanging seafront
2) exhausting traffic jams
3) Plaza de Armas
That is the Basilica Cathedral of Lima. What really surprised me is that there's a chapel consecrated to Francisco Pizarro inside
and it's strange because he came here to wipe this place out but from a religious point of view he's that someone who
taught Catholicism and not someone who conquered Peru.
Now this way it makes a bit more sense, but still...
In Lima there's this lovely seafront where you have the opportunity of meeting His Majesty the Pacific Ocean.
"Okay, now that we got used to the local time zone (which here it's 7 hours less than Italy)
we are walking around the seafront to have a taste of some ocean air.
You just take the stairs from Miraflores neighborhood (where we live) and you get here by the ocean, where there's people surfing
and some other people taking pictures of random things.
Look, it's an endless circle: someone taking photos of someone else taking photos of someone else taking photos... Chain reaction.
"What are you doing?"
"The aim here was photographing this little crab with a macro lens"
"Little break: apart from taking crabs pictures, Christian will spend the rest of the trip fighting with his new GoPro's voice commands.
"Switch off! Switch off!!"
Anyway, Lima had nothing left to show apart from some kind of park for lovers, so we left the city as soon as possible, heading south, in Paracas.
On our way there, we could see one of the best sunsets in Pisco (which is also the name of the most famous made-in-Peru liquor,
which we had the opportunity to taste that night while showing off a bit.)
"Paracas welcomes us in this ordinary place for humble, low-class people."
"...and low IQ."
"Yeah"
"And we're in pole position."
But we certainly didn't come here to show off, we're here for something else.
Okay, today we're going from Paracas to Ballestas Islands on this little boat
Ballestas are a little archipelago in which there's a great part of peruvian's fauna and avifauna.
"Let's bet: who's gonna be the first to get bird's poop on their head?"
"I think it'll be Luca."
My telephoto lens is set, my group's ready... Let's go!
As soon as we got on our boat -
"Marco looks like a pornstar."
- we could find ourselves right in front of one of Peru's countless mysteries: this giant candle holder (a cactus, according to someone else)
carved in the mountain and no one knows when, how, why or who did it.
Only thing we know is it's beautiful and not far from here are the Ballestas Islands,
where we could find sea lions, pelicans, some others sea birds
including cormorants (that's not black ground, those are cormorants!)
and while we were enthusiastically observing the beauty of the animal kingdom, we decided to stop for longer than enough
"Someone has had a great idea of throwing a rope into the sea and now our boat is stuck. I don't know why but there are several ropes left underwater."
"A scuba diver came to help us with a knife in his mouth, like Rambo."
Unfortunately, it didn't work.
"I can't believe it, they're sharpening the knife! There's the knife grinder!"
"Ladies and gentleman, here's the knife grinder"
This didn't work as well and all we could do is wait for someone else to help.
"Guys, now I can tell you: I specifically threw the rope into the sea so that we could go back with a yacht!"
"Did you really think that we would go back on this little boat?"
Bad news: the knife can't cut the rope, the scuba diver can't help us, the yacht is not picking us up because we don't look like we could get on there
Christian is doing crosswords
"I'm reading some jokes here"
4 letters, gets stuck in our boat's engine: ROPE
After waiting for an hour, someone did came to rescue us.
"Guys, I've got an idea!"
"Nooo"
I kind of had the impression here that our delay made our guides feel in a bit of a hurry
"Okay we're late but we don't want to take off yet!"
What's worse is after a while I realized that telling my group I was about to get married wasn't a good idea.
"They made up some excuses to make me get off here and said there's a sheet on the ground, which I can grab
- HEY, NO NO NO NO don't go away -
"Despite spending an extra hour on that boat we managed to organize something for you."
I think they're making something up for my bachelor party. I knew I shouldn't have told them.
and then it says "If you don't want to die, you'd better head to Tacama Fazenda"
I don't know where that is.
Why do I always get to travel with criminals like these?
Why don't I organize trips with elderly people? They're nice ones, playing cards and watching works in progress on construction sites all day...
Never. Just jailbirds for me.
Okay, I'm here.
"My ears are on fire."
But eventually I  survived.
Jailbirds tour.
You're savages.
"Stefano, you're going to be our guest for the next two hours."
"This worries me a bit."
"No you don't have to. You have to fully enjoy it instead!"
"How? Have you seen him?!"
"I think he signed for the tour because he's been released on parole."
"Cheers! Stefano is going to get married!"
"Yeah but nothing serious..."
All in all, I was expecting it to be worse than this.
After a professional tasting some peruvian wines and after showing my ignorance about the topic -
"It's red."
We were ready to face the biggest mystery of them all: Nazca Lines.
Nazca Lines are huge drawings carved in the mountains and on the desert ground surrounding the city of Nazca
and they're one of the main human mysteries because we still don't know who did it, when, how and why.
What's shocking are details: for example in the spider's geoglyph its genitals (which you can only see with a microscope) are depicted too.
In the last century many theories came up about those lines: someone claims they're some sort of astronomic calendar,
but no link has been found between their position and the astronomic calendar;
some others used to think they were guidelines to make balloons (Nazca people were believed to be able to fly because you can only see the lines from above).
There was no other option: we had to fly too.
A quick weighing to make sure we wouldn't fall down, and then after a short walk to the airport we were ready.
"Tell us what do you think about the Nazca people"
"Freghete! (untranslatable)
"Here's Flavia's ability to sum things up."
Those symbols are something so weird and out of this world that there could be only an explanation:
"In my opinion there's no other explanation to this but aliens."
"Yeah, I agree."
"I mean, what's so strange about other people living on other planets?"
"Yeah, it's practically obvious"
"...that there are other life forms."
"I knew that. I knew that!"
"How could one think it's an astronomic calendar? Who would do that? And then the monkey's well drawn, so why would someone draw a man with his head square?"
"Because he's obviously wearing a helmet."
"And some boots too, like astronauts."
As expected, we ended up discussing about this topic
"What makes you believe in aliens?"
"Well it's highly possible that there are other life forms communicating with other life forms including us."
"I agree."
"Why don't you believe in aliens instead?"
"We would have seen them, but we didn't. We've been here for 2000 years..."
"Why do they hide?"
"They should come here, enjoy Peru's beauty, eat some pizza, mozzarellas,some pasta with pesto..."
"I'd end the debate with a couple questions: if mushrooms didn't exist, could you imagine them?
and if fish didn't exist, could you imagine them?"
In some other parts of the universe, it's easy.
*singing "Altre F.D.V" by the italian band Bluvertigo*
*still debating*
From Nazca, we leave on a huge bus to Arequipa
toasting with a special drink.
"Redbull sucks! Inca Kola is way better."
"Hope" then turned out to be the bottom line of this trip.
"We've been on this bus for ten hours...
at least our sits are very comfortable and we can chat a bit. Time passes, one way or another."
"It's strange how personal sense of time is. Fra has been sleeping for 11 hours out of 12 and didn't even realize we left."
Somehow we managed to get safe and sound to Arequipa, unique in the world for three things:
1. an amazing landscape
That mountain over there has two reasons to be special for: today it's 5000mt high but once it was a higher volcano (9000mt)
and the top exploded during an eruption.
People from Turin will love the second reason: that mountain's called "Picchu Picchu"
only people from Piemonte will understand what's so funny about this...
*italian dialect pun about being stupid*
2. Colonial churches, with some wonderful artworks inside
and of course, 3: Plaza De Armas.
This is Plaza De Armas, the main square in Arequipa, also known as "The White City"
not because of the white buildings but because during the Spanish colonisation, white people used to live here.
Over there is a church founded by Jesuits, and then the main Arequipa's church, St. Peter's Basilica.
These two churches are amongst the main attractions here in Arequipa but if you come here
spend at least two hours in St. Catherine's Monastery because it's totally worth it, trust me.
Indeed, it's even better than the other places I showed you before. It's the best thing in Arequipa
and surely one of the best in the entire Peru.
"Arequipa's monastery is basically a city into another city, it's a small labyrinth with narrow paths, tiny passages,
railing cells for the nuns that used to live here... But the best thing is colours!
You go from vivid blue to fire red. Truly the best thing in this city.
Anyway, Arequipa was also the key to learn something characteristic in Peru: climatic transitions.
Arequipa is about 2000mt above the sea level
near the equatorial zone and the climate here is very dry
which means that during the day it's so hot you get easily dehydrated, but at night or in the shadow the temperature lowers a lot.
But that's only a small part of what was to come.
 It was then about time we headed to the Andes.
Today we're facing one of the most insidious things about a trip in Peru: altitude.
We're going from Arequipa to Chivay through a mountain pass which is 4900mt high
Comparing to this, the Mont Blanc is a beach.
This spot is at a 3800mt altitude, and over there is not a generic cloud but it's an eruption cloud from Sabancaya,
a volcano that erupted some minutes ago (which is not so unusual, since it does it frequently during the day)
Passing through some out-of-this-world landscapes, we reach some considerable peaks.
"According to our altimeter, the altitude here is 4018mt
One traditional solution to AMS here is the "mate de coca" infusion
with real cocaine, these are the same leaves you get the drug from.
"Coca leaves only contains 1% cocain, which our body cannot absorb this way. These leaves are not a drug and they're not dangerous; in fact they have multiple benefits on our health when on the mountains."
"It's good, tastes like mint."
Going on, we encounter these immense landscapes
and lovely animals like vicuñas and alpacas, which are so soft and sweet we immediately fall in love with.
They're perfect models for selfies too, even though their way of showing love is not the most graceful thing ever.
A bit of general knowledge is always important. In Italy we know the idea of "doggie-style" way too well
but here's the peruvian variant: alpaca-style, with calls, spits and another one sniffing the others
"Here he is. Hell yeah! No fear."
It's a moment of social life, it's part of the life circle.
End of erotic speech, we keep looking at some unforgettable scenarios, while we slowly reach 5000mt.
Okay we made it, here at Mirador De Los Vulcanos it's a 4900mt altitude
and as the name suggests we're surrounded by volcanoes.
That one over there just erupted but it's not unusual here, this happens every day, there's a lot of seismic activity.
My group's alright, we are just a bit fuzzy but it's normal up here.
From there we went down to some more oxygenated areas, in order to reach Chivay
well-known for: 1) its folklore
"These apparently random rags and sacks are actually part of the town's herbalist's shop."
"and that woman over there is the herbalist, which is basically a pharmacist because
whenever you have a problem you come here and explain it, and then you get advice on what infusion is best for you"
"Town life"
2) Coca leaves' market
"Here it's happening something that would be illegal elsewhere: Coca candies!"
"Yeah, of all sorts."
"Coca leaves, guys this is coca! This is trafficking."
"Either you make tea with these before getting to the airport or you get arrested."
"Coca comes in all shapes: leaves, candies... Coca is for everyone!"
And yes baby, you got it! Plaza de Armas!
With its small but lovely church with St. Rose of Lima represented inside:
she is the patron saint of Peru and maybe of our marvelous and touching journey too
which kept on giving us indescribable emotions, starting from this valley near Chivay: Colca Canyon.
This is one of those places one is unable to take a photograph of, because you can try every perspective
but you'll never be able to capture the sense of peace and immensity you have from looking at this vast scenario.
It really is something out of this world.
Walking down the canyon we reach Cruz Del Condor, and the name says it all.
We came here because it's a secret place only I know about. There's no one else.
Now we have to wait for a condor. We need a corpse.
 "Marco!"
Once we saw the condor, Peru's true soul was seducing us all
and after another long trip, volcanic eruptions, and some "mate de coca" consumption's symptoms -
"Drink some mate de coooca, it's good for yooou
Drink some mate de coooca, it makes you digeeeest"
considerable symptoms, I'd say.
"and all of its leaveees"
"Okay, you're great"
- we arrive in front of Lake Titicaca, completely in peruvian's mood.
News: first, I'm now totally integrated with local's people and second, we're on Lake Titicaca which is the highest navigable lake in the world
we're 4000mt above the sea level
This lake is on the border between Peru and Bolivia, over there is La Paz
Interesting fact is on Titicaca's islands people still speak Quechua, Incas first language
but what's even more interesting are Uros floating islands.
Uros floating islands are so incredible that you may think it's something especially made up for tourists
truth is, there really is this community living on floating islands built after an art attack.
"Welcome to Art Attack, today we're going to create our own homemade floating island."
Those are totora roots, totora reeds are embedded in the lake ground but during dry season some pieces detach and start to float
people collect them and tie them together with these poles, that they then hammer into the ground and tie with a rope
in order to do the support base which has to be at least 2 metres high.
Afterwards, they arrange 1 metres of totora reeds vertically and horizontally
and then finally build their house on it.
Once it's done they have to anchor their islands to the ground
and to make this they throw a rope with a pole that will get fitted into the ground 
thanks to a big stone attached to it.
This way, boats can sail safely without getting stuck like it happened in Ballestas Islands.
"Now stick everything together with some glue and you'll have your own homemade floating island!"
As we were saying, Uros people live here.
They're completely autonomous and independent people, here from generations.
They still speak Aymara, an ancient language. Whatever they need they do it themselves
and they only need some money for emergencies, here's why they work for tourists sewing these tapestries by night.
The only times they leave the islands is to go to the market where they exchange goods.
They offer fish or whatever they produce in exchange for legumes or something else; they're vegetarian all year long
except for special celebrations, when they eat meat.
We say goodbye to Uro people and shove off to Lake Titicaca to reach a shocking community: Taquileños
that live on Taquile Island.
Here on Taquile Island is a community of about 3000 people, descending directly from Incas (they still speak their first language, Quechua)
and completely detached from the Peruvian State, which means they receive nothing nor give nothing to the State
they have their own social organization, their rules and their traditions.
Only way to be a part of this community is to marry one of the women. Marriage here is compulsory
and if you decide to divorce they take everything away from you and your wife, so it's something really serious.
What's incredible is no one came here to conquer this land in the past years, they've always been autonomous and independent
and it's something very difficult to find nowadays. No one cares about them.
 *untranslatable pun about Lake Titicaca's name*
Looking at Taquile's landscape I felt home because it reminds a bit of the one in Mediterranean islands.
Until you meet a 100-year-old (a hundred!!) sewing a hat all day long, which is fundamental in Taquileños' dress code.
Taquileños men always have to wear a headgear that show what their social status is.
This red and white one is given to 7-year-old children to show they're not married,
when they get married they change it with a red one.
If they wear this one they're authorities, like village bosses.
Things like these makes you ask yourself what freedom is, what society is, why are we slaves to the system...
that kind of questions that leads you to drug consumption.
While we were walking one of us came and asked 
"Does someone wants a coca leaf?"
and I know we're at the sea but we're still at a 4000mt altitude.
after being this closed to drug addiction and after a fun night in some claustrophobic pubs in Puno
"Guys... who farted? Come on."
"Oh come on I can smell it. Who did it?"
It was then about time we explored the bottom line of every journey in Peru: Incas' heritage.
First thing we see about what's left of this people is Viracocha Temple, the main Incas' temple
where pilgrims from the area used to gather.
"Pilgrims came here from all over the Empire to pray."
"Over there is a low wall, that's part of a pedestrian path that linked all the Empire from Argentina to Colombia
like a huge old Camino de Santiago, which at that time pilgrims used to get here."
Then we start to discover how society used to work in the Incas' Empire.
Incas' society was extraordinary, organized like some sort of family (but extended from Argentina to Colombia)
and there were three main rules:
1. don't be idle
2. don't steal
3. don't lie
But this was just the first of many others shocking discoveries that were to come along the path to Chinchero
a little town not so far from Cuzco, in which life gently flows slower than anywhere else,
and with a memorable past.
When there was the Incas' Empire, Chinchero was a sacred area and there was an important temple
but when Spanish people arrived they wiped it out and built a church instead.
This wasn't something significant for Inca people because for them this was in any case a sacred place
and they kept on coming here offering gifts to "Pachamama" which is Mother Earth.
Inca people consecrated their life to Pachamama, not just spiritually but technologically too,
because those amazing terracings in Chinchero were just a part of the entire agronomy's masterpieces we were about to see in Moray.
This is one of Inca's masterpieces. It was a secret farming laboratory, which allowed plants of the Amazon rainforest
to get used to the climate (which is different here due to altitude).
They used to bring the plants here and plant them in the smallest central circle where the temperature is 5°C hotter than where I am now.
Then they plant them a step higher until they reached those terracings up there: the plant was then used to the climate
and the seeds could be sold to people in the surrounding areas.
But Incas knew no boundaries: they even managed to find a salt-water spring at a 3000mt altitude
perhaphs thanks to some kind of geological miracle that made sea water drain from an underground fault
(created from a continental plates' collision that led to the formation of the Andes)
that Incas exploited creating some saltworks that are something magnificent to see.
This is the salt water spring from which Maras' saltworks are made, and contains 11% more salt than Dead See's water.
Now, despite my already bad experience at Bajkal Lake I'm going to taste this water
"It's veeery salty. With all this salt there are no bacteria here, it's sterilised. I should be fine."
"Now I'm thirsty."
"I couldn't help it, even after my experience at Lake Bajkal. I just couldn't, it's a tradition. You should try too."
Believe it or not, the show here is far from over. Apart from mastering earth's abilities, Incas are well-known for their architecture too, which made them immortal
and we find it in the magical Ollantaytambo.
Ollantaytambo was built where three valleys intersect: one leading to the Andes mountain range and the Amazon rainforest
another leading to Cuzco and the third one leading to the Amazon rainforest and to Machu Picchu.
The Amazon rainforest is only 25km away from here.
Now have a close look on what's left of the Ollantaytambo's temple.
What's really astonishing is the infinitesimal precision of these cuts because they were made when there were only bronze chisels as tools.
There's no concrete here, stones are just perfectly joint together. We probably wouldn't do such a flawless job today with laser cutters
so how did they do it??
The outstanding precision of these cuts wasn't the only noteworthy thing around:
This place is magical all over because wherever you look, you find something mysterious.
We saw the stones but that building over there is a warehouse and who knows why it's up there
and then if you look closely at that mountain you can see a face in profile which the first ray of sun during the winter solstice
(which is in June here and not December) hits.
This is a place with a unique vibe, you just can't fully understand until you're here
and this is quite unexpected honestly because everyone talks about Machu Picchu but few people talk about marvelous Ollantaytambo.
In addition to all this, Ollantaytambo was the door to the Sacred Valley.
In this station without sidewalks, a train is waiting to take us to Aguas Calientes,
which would be just an insignificant town if it wasn't for the fact it's right under Machu Picchu.
Since Machu Picchu is one of the most visited places in the entire world, lots of tourists go there.
The site opens at 6 am and the first bus leaves at 5:30.
If we want to have the slightest chance of being the first group going there and taking some photos at dawn without too many people being around
we have to queue up from 2:30 am.
We got up at 2 am and we're here since 2:30. Here is the queue for the bus leaving for Machu Picchu.
Now it's almost 4 am and the queue's so long already but we're the first ones.
An interesting phenomenon in this queue are the ones playing dumb, that come here and nonchalantly stand in front of the row.
Then when you gently make them notice that this is a queue and they can go kill themselves in the back,
they go like this: "Oooh it's a queue! So this is a queue! And you're the first ones!"
Argueing in our favour, they're not italians.
Christian is in low power mode
"I slept four hours yesterday and then again four hours today."
"and tomorrow will be the same. And the next day too."
But let's say this: it was worth it. The view was incomparable.
"It's spectacular. I think waking up at 2 am was totally worthy."
"I'm thinking about not showing them because they have to come here to fully enjoy this view."
"I don't know, maybe I'll be sorry about it. Shall I show them?"
"Okay you deserve it, look at this breathtaking view."
Thankfully, the fog vanished in a few hours, showing us Machu Picchu and all its magnificence.
Machu Picchu is the true Peru's symbol, the majority of tourists just come here to visit this site
and since it was opened for people to visit, and labeled as one of the modern world's wonders
poverty percentage here in Peru is 35% decreased just thanks to the tourism economic income.
This also has a dark side because this place was not made to host millions of tourists every year
but for just a thousand people's living. 
What's happening is some parts of the city are crumbling down tourists' weight,
and for this reason it will only be possible to walk on a guided path, starting from October (which is in two months).
Machu Picchu is one of the mysteries of the Incas' civilization, because there are still lots of doubts about who used to live here
and what this place was for.
Clues leads the way to a plausible hypothesis: no children's skeleton were found and the main buildings were temples or astronomic observatories
so it seems the city was made for astronomical studies and for religious reasons.
The city lays right amongst four reference points that represent the four cardinals.
Huayna Picchu mountains points North
Macchu Picchu mountain points South
Near to the Temple Of The Sun there's a sundial pointing west. This sundial is exactly 13° tilted, which is the inclination of Machu Picchu in relation to the equatorial line.
For those people it was a way of knowing when the equinoxes were, because that was were they started harvesting.
And then there's the Temple Of The Condor pointing east.
"Can you see the condor? That's its head. Then there's the neck, the body and these two rocks should be its wings."
"Did they sculpt this?"
"Yes, they did."
"Could you sculpt a condor?"
"We can try."
Incas' astronomical precision really is something impressive.
This building is one of the few where no evidence of a straw roof was found, it had no roof because there were these two stretch of water
needed to examine the sky during the day and the night, Sun revolution and the stars.
If during spring they could see the Pleiades reflected in that water stretch, it meant the following year the harvesting would have been good.
As much as Machu Picchu is a symbol of mass tourism, this doesn't reduce its charm
because the pleasing aesthetic and the enchanting scenario around perfectly match with its invisible, timeless beauty
and all its spiritual vibes.
This is Roca Sagrada, an altar where goods were offered and wishes made; so people used to pray here.
According to Incas' tradition they needed to take three Coca leaves (one small, one medium and a big one) representing the three worlds:
the underground world, the earthly world and then heaven.
Then they needed to blow in three directions and then they place the leaves there.
You know, since I'm going to get married...
In a few words, Machu Picchu is the bottom line of a pre-Colombian world we still know too little about.
It's basically impossible to find Machu Picchu if you don't know it exists, here's why it's one of the few places that outlived the Spanish invasion.
When they were in Ollantaytambo however, Machu Picchu's inhabitants escaped to Vilcabamba in order to protect it.
Vilcabamba became their new capital city, which they build beyond the Andes after escaping from here.
It's also one of the most dangerous places here, because there are lots of Colombian drug dealers managing cocaine's trade
since Incas built their cities where there were lots of Coca's leaves.
So beautiful is Machu Picchu that despite our luck with the weather we decided we wanted to go again at dawn for a second chance.
"We wanted to go again at dawn to take some photos and walk down the path to Machu Picchu's mountain
but it's raining so hard that despite waking up at 2 am once again and despite being the first ones in the queue (again!) we decide to leave.
"We're first so we're leaving on purpose, it's a slap on everyone's face."
"Yeah, because we can.
Bye bye!"
Proud and happy we left for Cuzco, but this time there was a surprise.
"Hi!"
"But why? Why?!"
Here we are, finally in Cuzco, crossroads of the world, heart and soul of the Inca Empire
with architectural treasures like for example Corichanca
which may seem nothing more than just a Christian monastery, but so flawless its architecture is
that you can almost tell it's something out of this world.
As a matter of fact, conquistadores thought this was the devil's work because no human being could be able to do such a perfect job.
Corichanca, also known as the Golden Temple or Temple Of The Sun was consecrated to the Sun God
so it was fully covered in golden leaf (inside and outside) because the building had to shine bright at any time.
When Spanish people came here they obviously ransacked all the gold and tried to destroy the building with hammer and chisel
without succeeding because the structure was too well-built,
its slots too perfect and there was no linking between the stones.
They then decided to leave the building there and plaster it again and build a Christian monastery.
Their game held up until the 50's, when an earthquake made the rooftop they built crumble down
showing the underlying Incas' building, which instead overcame the earthquake without a problem due to its perfect architecture.
Now my question is: if the Spanish people couldn't destroy it with hammer and chisel, how could they sculpt stones to make these flawless slots?
Sacsayhuamán Fortress shows these people's architectural superiority at its finest.
Actually it's not really a fortress (Spanish people called it so), because probably this used to be a temple:
Incas gave no importance to war issues, their priority was the Sun God and the rituals,
including funeral rituals, to which Quenko Temple (built using just one single monolith) was consecrated.
This stone was considered to be sacred by Incas, they believed it was the eartly representation of their God.
Here just came the Inca with his court and a priest for some propitiatory rituals.
The Inca was considered to be son of the Sun God (he was a half-god) so to purify his earthly soul he would walk through that passage
dug into the divine stone, come here with his soul purified and sit on his throne, ready for the ceremony.
Speaking of Inca's godly origin, it's interesting to learn how dead people were treated.
"Normal" people were buried in a fetal position (so that they were ready for their next life). After being purified in hell, a condor would take them to heaven
The Inca wouldn't undergo this process because he was Sun God's son, his life on earth was like a dream, a period of time in which he separated from his divine nature
so instead of being buried people mummified him in sitting position. Once a year, there was a procession in which
all the mummified Incas were carried in parade. 
When Spanish people saw this parade,
they robbed and burnt the mummies, replacing this ceremony with the Corpus Domini one.
How can we then not mention Cuzco's main square, which name is amongst the most creative ones in Peru: Plaza De Armas
where of course is a huge cathedral, wonderful on the inside
there are lots of amazing things and also interesting proofs concerning religious syncretism between Christian and Incas cultures.
Unfortunately you can't take photos in there so you have to come here and see for yourself!
As usual we had to end our journey in the best possible way: after another early rising we head to Apu Winicunca (5100mt),
also known as Montaña De Siete Colores.
we're at the base camp, about to go on Winicunca Mountain which is also known as the Rainbow Mountain because of its coloured stripes.
we're at 4300mt now and we'll have to hike up until we reach the peak (5100mt), where we'll be able to see the mountain and how spectacular it is.
Walking for 700mt with so much difference in altitude, starting from the same altitude as Mont Blanc is not easy,
so in order not to have problems we let these horses carry us slowly through this incredible valley
until we get right in front of the Rainbow Mountain.
We passed 5000mt. This path would be suitable for a Sunday walk but at this altitude every step is exhausting,
other people stop sometimes because they're dead tired, but since we got here on the horses we have a few more energies.
We made it.
"Oh. My. God."
"It's breathtaking."
What is now called Rainbow Mountain was a sacred place back in the Incas' era
and Cuzco's flag is tought to be inspired by this landscape, just like Corichanca's huge painting.
But like every other information about Incas, this also gets lost due to the cultural damage the Spanish invasion caused.
All that's left for us to see is this extraterrestrial landscape.
Over there is Ausangate, one of Peru's highest peaks (about 6300mt).
Wherever you look, it's wonderful.
Not bad for a bachelor party, huh? Not at all!
In that moment I also had my first hug at a 5300mt altitude.
After a two weeks journey, my group was like a second family which I knew everything about
Christian, for example, kept on fighting with his GoPro.
"Switch off. Switch off!"
Luca was a horse whisperer.
"Stop flirting with me."
And we were all on our way to a serious addiction to mate de coca.
"We're at a 5100mt altitude. What's this? Water?!"
"Maaaate de coca! We want mate de coca!"
And since I couldn't just get by with them neglecting me on the street, they organized me a bachelor party.
And that night, people warming up in that pub in Cuzco were performing some obscene shows.
"Why are we looking at this?"
"We left for Peru just to see this."
"Switch oooff!"
Of course, his GoPro didn't switch off and started recording public indecency, pubic indecency, weird dances,
different revivals from 90's to 70's,
promiscuity of all kind, all ending up in a kidnapping.
"But why? Why do I get to travel with people like this?!"
"What have I done... Tell me there's a hill!"
"No. That's the fun part."
Summing up: while blindfolded and carried away by these two criminals, with the constant fear of falling over and smash my face
and without knowing whose hands were touching me all along the way,
other two were roaming around Cuzco's streets to find a lady willing to record this voice message for me:
that they played sometimes making me think there was some transsexual Inca ready to desecrate my noble heart
and this hyphotesis was starting to feel dangerously real when I found myself in a silent hallway and then, lying on a soft bed (without knowing it was the one in my room).
"Fetal position...Hold on, don't!"
"I know there's a man here, I know it."
"It's Christian!"
"We made it!"
"Where the hell did you find the lady from the voice message?!"
"On the streets, earlier."
What can I say, my bachelor party ended with me being squashed under Christian's nipple
and since I find it unfair for my story to end with this awful image,
let me tell you something I didn't before.
At the beginning I said this journey felt like it lasted months instead of just two weeks
but this has nothing to do with days being intense while travelling. As paranormal as it may seem,
here in Peru time flows in a different way than anywhere else in the world.
I mean: an hour is an hour, and one day is one day, but what I was living in the meantime didn't correspond with the exact amount of time passing
like Peru was in some sort of parallel universe, which looks like our world but follows different rules
and the hints are all over if you look closely:
for example when you look at the seniors and their hollowed faces, or when you feel like these alpacas
live closer to the sky than to earth.
Or again when you spiritually dive into those majestic nature's colours, that go from the sea to up to 6000mt in Ausangate
or when you face several inexplicable mysteries like Nazca Lines or like those perfect stone cuts in every Incas' building.
Another mystery is Incas' technological and agricultural superiority, which was wiped out by the Spanish invasion
like some vandal destroyed a wise man's knowledge.
Whoever comes here develop some kind of hate towards those Spanish people that six centuries ago
deprived us of one of the biggest cultural treasures in history, but maybe Peru is charming because Spanish people may have
wiped their body out, but not their soul,
which still owns this land and the heart of whoever decides to follow Incas' steps in this magical place.
And for this soul I feel a sense of wonder, feeling the intimate vibes of this land separated from history and human issues
that cannot desecrate this parallel universe in which Peru is
and in which the line between our body and spirit is blurred like in those dream where one can't tell from reality when they wake up.
Here's what's Peru is for me: a land that cradles you and brings you into a world where there are no time rules to follow
A land in which two weeks feel like months and that leaves you with the delightful feeling you got lost somewhere.
A land whose charm is so weightless and mysterious that when you wake up, for the first time in your life  you may have a chance to realize
that if here dreams and reality can be the same
...then maybe they can always be.
Written and directed by: Stefano Tiozzo
(ENG SUB by Chiara Costantino)
to Mark, Luca, Sere, Gio', Laura, Little John, Chiara, Bas, Scarpa, Miky, Pally and Fla with immense gratitude.
Filmed in Peru
August 2017
Realized with Antarctica Travel Company's support (www.antarctica.it)
Next trips on www.stefanotiozzo.com/it/tours
"Video, switch off!"
"This went well."
