Las Casitas, A Belmond Hotel

The Colca Canyon drops four thousand metres and offers, at night, one of the cleanest skies in the Andes. Las Casitas de Belmond take advantage of that topography: twenty free-standing casitas, each with its own heated plunge pool, scattered across twenty hectares of pre-Inca terraces in Yanque, the canyon's oldest village. The architecture reinterprets the Andean cabin in contemporary terms, with local materials and long silences.

The Premier Casitas, with outdoor jacuzzi and open views of the canyon, are the most requested; for extended families, the Patrimonial Suite with two bedrooms. Curiña, the lodge restaurant, works with produce from the Colca valley — cured alpaca, native corns, Andean herbs, farmhouse bread — and shifts its menu with the agricultural season. Breakfast with condors in flight above the canyon is the inevitable privilege of a stay.