Background: Ancient Peru was the seat of several prominent Andean civilizations, most notably that of the Incas whose empire was captured by the Spanish conquistadors in 1533. Peruvian independence was declared in 1821, and remaining Spanish forces defeated in 1824. After a dozen years of military rule, Peru returned to democratic leadership in 1980, but experienced economic problems and the growth of a violent insurgency. President Alberto FUJIMORI's election in 1990 ushered in a decade that saw a dramatic turnaround in the economy and significant progress in curtailing guerrilla activity. Nevertheless, the president's increasing reliance on authoritarian measures and an economic slump in the late 1990s generated mounting dissatisfaction with his regime. FUJIMORI won reelection to a third term in the spring of 2000, but international pressure and corruption scandals led to his ouster by Congress in November of that year. A caretaker government oversaw new elections in the spring of 2001, which ushered in Alejandro TOLEDO as the new head of government; his presidency has been hampered by allegations of corruption.
July 12th 2008South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon
Early, crack of dawn, sparrow´s start this morning for a long bus ride to the depths of Colca Canyon to see the famed Andean condors - filthy ugly yet majestic creatures found only in the Canyon.
... 14 photos[full story]
June 10th 2008South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon - know as the White city due to the vast amounts of white volcanic rock used as a building material.
Arequipa astonished us with its quaintness, of cobbles streets and beautiful architecture of ar ... 21 photos[full story]
July 8th 2008South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon Having arrived in Arequipa ( a nice change to be only 2300m ASL), it was straight off on a tour to the Colca Canyon - now believed to be the deepest canyon in the world. We drove out across the mounta ... 8 photos[full story]
June 20th 2008South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon We thought that a fun way to celebrate Abe’s 54th Birthday would be to visit Colca Canyon. We headed out on a Saturday first thing in the morning on a tour minivan, which we appreciated travelin ... 18 photos[full story]
June 23rd 2008South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon
I arrived in the city of Arequipa, Peru (2nd largest city in Peru) on Saturday June 21, 2008. The City of Arequipa is located at 2800 meters of elevation so walking around the first few hours gave ... 11 photos[full story]
June 19th 2008South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon Our tour guide was due to pick us up at midnight so we set our alarm for 10 minutes to. As 10 mins past rolled around we were starting to worry whether the instructions were clear. Leanne went to the ... 8 photos[full story]
June 19th 2008South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon Have returned from our long trip in the 2nd deepest canyon in the world. We took a long bus ride to get there and then ate lunch with the other tour groups. Our guide was a girl in her 20´s. We wer ... [full story]
June 13th 2008South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon So we had a 5am wakeup call today, had breakfast at 5:30, and piled on the bus at 6am for a two hour drive to the condor del cruz... um.. somthing like that. I had forgotten to mention that our littl ... [full story]
June 2nd 2008South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon Chapitre 7 : Voyage, voyage jusqu au bout du Canyon (26 Mai au 2 Juin)
Nous quittons Ollantaytambo le matin afin de rejoindre Cusco par bus (2h30), toujours accompagnes de musique latino tres forte ... 10 photos[full story]
June 3rd 2008South America » Peru » Arequipa » Colca Canyon hey yall
hope everyone is well, we just got back from our 3 day hike in the colca canyon, the deepest in the world ! it was amazing, so beautifull and isolated. We started at 6am when we were met b ... [full story]
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