Hidden Gems of Hidden Gem Bucket List

Visit Marcahuasi, a 4,000 m plateau of giant stone faces that stare back

Walk the ghost settlement of Santa Bárbara, the colonial mercury mine they called 'the mine of death'

Hike to Millpu, a staircase of a hundred turquoise travertine pools hidden in an Ayacucho gorge

Watch the sun rise along the Thirteen Towers of Chankillo, a 2,300-year-old solar calendar in the desert

Explore Kuélap, the walled cloud-fortress of the Chachapoya — older than Machu Picchu and nearly empty

Earn the impossible turquoise of Laguna 69, a glacial lake under the white walls of the Cordillera Blanca

Hike through cloud forest to Gocta, a 771-metre double waterfall the wider world only learned of in 2005

Cross the last Inca rope bridge, hand-woven from grass and rebuilt by four communities every June

Cross a footbridge to "the dying town" — a near-deserted village marooned on a crumbling tufa pinnacle

Bathe in warm sulphur water cascading over natural limestone terraces in the Tuscan countryside

Ferry to the Venetian lagoon’s rainbow island of fishermen’s houses and handmade lace