Quick trick update python to version 2.7 on Centos 6.5

yum install centos-release-SCL
yum install python27

Then if you want to use if in your shell you would run something like:

scl enable python27 bash

Disclaimer: this is a trick for using python 2.7 in a separate environment, without removing 2.6 because it would break Yum on this centos version.