Travels in Peru
Didn't do much journal writing while traveling in Peru, so I pretty much only have the photos to share. Somewhere along the line, I did turn them into these little collages though. :)
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Scenes from Cusco, the old capital of the Incan Empire. What an amazing place!
With our base in Cusco, we visited many other sites and small communities that are remnants of the great Incan Empire -- like Ollyantambo and Saqsayhuaman, and of course Machu Picchu. Here's some pictures from those stops:
(You'd think I would have taken more pictures of Machu Picchu. Sheesh!
As usual, I loved the human component, and you can't beat a rural market for loads of culture!
One memorable stop was staying on little Taquile Island, on Lake Titicaca. We did a 2 day homestay and while it wasn't exactly comfortable (no electricity, rodents, etc...), it was very fascinating!
We also visited the Uros Islands, which are really quite amazing. They entirely manmade out of reeds, and were originally made by small groups seeking to flee the conquering Incan empire. Sadly, today it's really little more than a tourist attraction, with locals continuing to inhabit the islands just to sell tourist garb. But still...pretty cool to see an island made out of reeds!!!
We also spent a few days in Arequipa, a beautiful coastal city in the south of the country. One of my favorite sites in the city is the historic Santa Catalina Monastery, home to hundreds of nuns in it's heyday, but is now quiet and more populated by visiting tourists than resident nuns.
And I vividly remember visiting Colca Canyon! Our bus broke down three times, and this was especially unpleasant for me because I had very bad altitude sickness since arriving in South America, and on this ride I was having a really hard time breathing with the thin air of the high Andean passes. It was scary. I admit it -- I cried. Breathing is kind of important.
Here are some scenes en route to Peru's Colca Canyon, reputed to be the deepest canyon in the world. (Top right): One highlight was watching the condors ride the thermals up the canyon early in the morning. (Middle right): (Bottom right): Flocks of alpacas were everywhere in this high altitude landscape.
Later in the trip, we traveled to Nazca, and flew over the famed Nazca Lines--a series of enormous drawings etched into the landscape and only visible from far above. No one is really sure who created these large figures, how they did it, or even why they did it.
It
was a truly unique experience, but after 45 minutes of non-stop
circling, I was feeling mighty queasy and could focus on little more
than WHEN ARE WE GOING TO LAND!
While in Nazca, we make a little day trip out to see the Nazca Graves. What a creepy place to visit. These tombs have been heavily raided by robbers, so bones are strewn all across the landscape and many tombs have been fully opened, exposing the fascinating and gruesome remains of these ancient peoples. Yeeek!
One of the least memorable things we did was to visit the Ballestros Islands. That was a lot of uncomfortable traveling for not a lot to see. It's often called “the poor man's Galapagos”, and that's even a stretch. We went to see the seals and birdlife, which was cool, I guess, but I think it's better to just fork out the money and go to the real Galapagos (which are off the coast of Ecuador). En route, we passed this large and mysterious carving in the side of the hard sand dune. Several centuries old, the carving baffles archeologists, who think it perhaps was an ancient navigational aid.
And of course we spent some time in the capital city of Lima:
Lastly -- midway through our itinerary (sorry, but this is all out of order -- can't remember what we did when), we took a two day beach break at some small town along Peru's northern coastline. To this day, I have no idea where we really were---what the name of the town was---but I guess that's the point of this type of 'getaway', eh?
--
Scenes from Cusco, the old capital of the Incan Empire. What an amazing place!
With our base in Cusco, we visited many other sites and small communities that are remnants of the great Incan Empire -- like Ollyantambo and Saqsayhuaman, and of course Machu Picchu. Here's some pictures from those stops:
(You'd think I would have taken more pictures of Machu Picchu. Sheesh!
As usual, I loved the human component, and you can't beat a rural market for loads of culture!
One memorable stop was staying on little Taquile Island, on Lake Titicaca. We did a 2 day homestay and while it wasn't exactly comfortable (no electricity, rodents, etc...), it was very fascinating!
We also visited the Uros Islands, which are really quite amazing. They entirely manmade out of reeds, and were originally made by small groups seeking to flee the conquering Incan empire. Sadly, today it's really little more than a tourist attraction, with locals continuing to inhabit the islands just to sell tourist garb. But still...pretty cool to see an island made out of reeds!!!
We also spent a few days in Arequipa, a beautiful coastal city in the south of the country. One of my favorite sites in the city is the historic Santa Catalina Monastery, home to hundreds of nuns in it's heyday, but is now quiet and more populated by visiting tourists than resident nuns.
And I vividly remember visiting Colca Canyon! Our bus broke down three times, and this was especially unpleasant for me because I had very bad altitude sickness since arriving in South America, and on this ride I was having a really hard time breathing with the thin air of the high Andean passes. It was scary. I admit it -- I cried. Breathing is kind of important.
Here are some scenes en route to Peru's Colca Canyon, reputed to be the deepest canyon in the world. (Top right): One highlight was watching the condors ride the thermals up the canyon early in the morning. (Middle right): (Bottom right): Flocks of alpacas were everywhere in this high altitude landscape.
Later in the trip, we traveled to Nazca, and flew over the famed Nazca Lines--a series of enormous drawings etched into the landscape and only visible from far above. No one is really sure who created these large figures, how they did it, or even why they did it.
It
was a truly unique experience, but after 45 minutes of non-stop
circling, I was feeling mighty queasy and could focus on little more
than WHEN ARE WE GOING TO LAND! While in Nazca, we make a little day trip out to see the Nazca Graves. What a creepy place to visit. These tombs have been heavily raided by robbers, so bones are strewn all across the landscape and many tombs have been fully opened, exposing the fascinating and gruesome remains of these ancient peoples. Yeeek!
One of the least memorable things we did was to visit the Ballestros Islands. That was a lot of uncomfortable traveling for not a lot to see. It's often called “the poor man's Galapagos”, and that's even a stretch. We went to see the seals and birdlife, which was cool, I guess, but I think it's better to just fork out the money and go to the real Galapagos (which are off the coast of Ecuador). En route, we passed this large and mysterious carving in the side of the hard sand dune. Several centuries old, the carving baffles archeologists, who think it perhaps was an ancient navigational aid.
And of course we spent some time in the capital city of Lima:
Lastly -- midway through our itinerary (sorry, but this is all out of order -- can't remember what we did when), we took a two day beach break at some small town along Peru's northern coastline. To this day, I have no idea where we really were---what the name of the town was---but I guess that's the point of this type of 'getaway', eh?
