PERU // The Andes mountain range is the planet's longest, rucking up a raft of ridges over 5000m (16,400ft) across seven South American countries, and yet Peru's Cordillera Blanca caps almost all of it, not for height (that's Argentina's Aconcagua) but for the sheer, sustained high-altitude beauty and terrific trekking opportunities. The mountains festooning this region are rightly called nevados (snowcaps): high enough, with 18 summits cresting 6000m (19,685ft), to be under more or less permanent snow cover. But it is the montage of cerulean lakes, pearly glaciers, stark quebradas (ravines) and gushing waterfalls below the mountains that most impresses. Much of the best scenery is threaded through by the popular, four-day Santa Cruz trek from Cashapampa, but the region is replete with superb mountain hikes.

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