I had heard about some caves and a nice little hike up past Sacsayhuaman in Cusco, Peru… so my friend, Meca, and I took off to go explore this site known as El Balcón del Diablo, or The Devil’s Balcony.

We began by taking a bus up to Christo Blanco, the large statue of Jesus which is up on the hill looking over Cusco city. Believe it or not, it was the first time in almost 2 years that I had actually gotten up close and personal with the big guy.

From there we walked past the Sacsayhuaman site, careful not to piss off any of the security guards who were sure we were trying to sneak into the site for free. We looped around the ruins and made our way through little towns, asking for directions along the way, before finally arriving at the site.

Before even walking down Meca introduced me to a sweet little cave-like lookout where you can spy down on the river and caves below… nice! The site itself is complete with river, cliff face and a cave. It’s pretty amazing that something like this exists so close to Cusco and that more people do not go out there to see it.

Shoes off, we made our way into the cave and debated how we were going to make the jump down into the cave to complete our exploring when a local guide and two other explorers arrived. The guide explained that there used to be a ladder helping people down into the cave system to be able to walk through it into the other side. In the end we decided to just jump down… I went first.

Once all down, we walked through the little river and through the cave system. It wasn’t especially big or long, but it was super cool and such a nice escape from the normal drudgery of work and city living. I definitely want to go back and explore more of this area and I encourage everyone to do the same.

Happy exploring… : )