Peru Trip

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The journey
I’ve been dreaming of a trip to Peru since I was a kid and eventually I’ve succeeded in organizing it in summer 2007 with my wife but……just a couple of weeks before our departure we found out we were expecting a baby!!
After the obvious surprise and happiness about the not expected news we decided nevertheless to travel to Peru taking much more care about our trip (only cooked foods, no tiring walks for my wife and so on).
Here is a short travelogue of our Peruvian journey. I hope this can be of use for people who are going to have a trip in such a beautiful country. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you need some additional clarification.
Paracas Reserve and Ballestas Islands
We landed in Lima, Peru capital city, in the late afternoon of August 2, 2007, after a long and tiring flight from Turin, Italy. We just stay in Lima for one night of rest and the very next day we moved southward to Paracas Reserve using a local bus (Cruz Del Sur). We arrived in Pisco after a three hours bus trip and stayed at Hostal Santa Maria in Paracas.
Paracas Reserve is one of the best marine reserves in the world, with the highest concentration of marine birds. It is located in a desert peninsula where the powerful winds of the Pacific Ocean, the sea temperature, and other weather factors have created a stunning habitat for thousands of species of marine fauna and flora, ranging from tiny fish and mollusks to great seals.
After a funny walk of the gorgeous beaches and cliffs of the peninsula we admired the famous “Cathedral” (now lost forever since it has been destroyed by the huge earthquake that hit Peru in just a couple of weeks after our visit!). The next day we visited also the Ballestas Islands, a group of three islands with narrow shorelines and cliffs where, in the breeding seasons, birds build their nests with their own droppings. These droppings are known worldwide as the famous guano fertilizer.
During our boat trip to the Islands we had the opportunity to watch resident and migratory birds, including flamingos, red-legged cormorants, Inca terns, bobbies, as well as playful sea lions, and some amusing Humboldt penguins (well not a close encounter, just a far watching!).
The visit to Ballestas Island is a half-day trip, and in the afternoon we moved in the outback and visited the downtown of Ica and other places around, such as the Regional Museum where we saw great quantity of archaeological remains such as potteries, textiles and impressive Inca mummies.
In the outskirts of Ica we visited also a traditional winery, where we had an explanation about how Peruvian people make Pisco (their traditional spirit) and wine.
Finally, we spent the night in the Huacachina Lagoon, a nice place, with many hotels built around a lake surrounded by huge sand dunes, also called "El Oasis de America", where we climbed to the top of one of the sand dunes surrounding the lagoon and had the occasion to admire a beautiful landscape of sand dunes at sunset that we will never forget.
Nasca Lines and Arequipa
The day after we moved to Nasca, the well-know place where marvelous lines and figures can be watched with an aircraft. The morning after our arrival in Nasca, we decided to fly over the lines (my wife stayed on the ground, unfortunately!!); because of the misty weather I had to wait several hours before the sun showed up and then, finally, I had the opportunity to see the mysterious lines from the sky. The pilot of my aircraft made several circles around every figure to provide us the chance to take many photos of the lines, the most beautiful being the Hummingbird, the Condor and the Spider.
In the afternoon of the same day we went to see the Chauchilla cemetery, an ancient burial place, where the Nazca people used to bury their dead. Here some graves are open to visitors. Unfortunately the strong wind caused a sand storm that hindered a lot our visit. At midnight of the same day we departed from Nasca to Arequipa.
After a rough night in the bus with almost no sleep at all, we then arrived in Arequipa early in the morning of the next day.
Arequipa is known as La Ciudad Blanca (‘the white city”) because of the sillar, a pearly white volcanic rock used to build almost every house in the city. The city lies in the highlands at the foot of the snow-capped volcano El Misti.
In Arequipa we visited the Santa Catalina monastery, a beautiful monastery painted in bright red and blue colors. A local site that is worth a visit is the Santury Museum (located in the city center, just off the Plaza de Armas) where the famous Inca "Ice Maiden", Juanita, (a teenage girl sacrificed to the gods about 500 years ago) rests in a refrigerated crystal cage.
Puno and the Titicaca Lake
From Arequipa we then moved to the Titicaca Lake by Bus (again Cruz del Sur). We stayed in Puno, the gateway to Lake Titicaca and the Folkloric Capital of Peru.
As soon as I arrived in Puno I started to suffer from the height, but after some Coca-tea and a small dish together with other Italian guys we knew during the travel, I immediately recover (my wife, despite the pregnancy, didn’t suffer any kind of sickness!!).
The next morning we visited the Uros reed-islands and met some of those unique Indians.
In the afternoon we took a tour to The Chulpas of Sillustani, an impressive archaeological site with Incas tombs called "chulpas". Here the colors of landscapes you can admire, especially at sunset, are something that is still vivid in our hearts.
Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Incas
The day after, we moved to Cusco by bus.
Since Cusco sits at more than 3300 meters above sea level a mild altitude sickness is not uncommon. Fortunately we came from Puno (that is even higher!) and were already accustomed to the altitude. Generally many hotels provide the tired tourists with fresh coca tea to help alleviate the symptoms.
After our arrival in Cusco, the navel of the World, and a quick stop in the hotel we had a first visit of Cusco walking around the plaza de Armas and trough the amazing alleys of the Barrio de San Blas to admire some famous spots as the Cathedral of Cusco and the twelve-corners stone.
The next day we visited Koricancha, the former Inca Temple of the Sun, used by the Spaniards to build their Santo Domingo church. Since the church was built directly on top of an Incan structure, the original foundation is still all Inca.
Inside the temple you can admire the walls that were built with intricate interlocking stones and no mortar (this is typical of Inca architecture: no mixture of lime or cement was used as a bonding agent between stones); it is amazing to observe how the stones used for the walls perfectly fit into each other.
We also visited the huge ruins at Saqsaywaman (or Sacsahuaman or Sacsayhuamán), on a hill overlooking the city of Cuzco. The site is massive, but only about one fifth of the original structure remains. After the conquest, the Spaniards used the site as a quarry; so many walls were torn down to make Spanish houses and churches. The walls here have the same interlocking, mortar-free design as the Inca walls in Cuzco. However, the stones are considerably more massive, (some weighting hundreds of tons!).
On the following we also have a quick look to Qenco: a huge and holey piece of rock where there have been created stairs, seats, a snake, a puma, tunnels and many more. We then finished our day with a visit to the temple of the moon, Puca Pucara and to Tambo Machay.
Another worth trip is the tour of the sacred valley of the Incas (Valle Sagrado in Spanish) that extends along the Urubamba River. On the valley one encounters picturesque villages with impressive colonial churches, terraces and other archaeological places. Pisac, Chinchero, Urubamba, Maras and Ollantaytambo are some of the villages that you may visit.
Our first stop is Pisac, a picturesque town of creole and colonial aspect well-known for its Indian market that is a good place to pick up some souvenirs and see the Andean Villagers in their traditional clothing, that is to our opinion a sort of ‘entrapment’ for tourists looking for souvenirs. Very remarkable and worth to see are the Pisac ruins, known for the terraces girdling the lower slopes. Above them, narrow paths and steep staircases lead to the temple area from which you can admire a wonderful panorama of the sacred valley and the Urubamba river.
After the lunch we then moved to the Ollantaytambo ruins, where we had the chance to admire the gigantic stones used to build such a remarkable structure. Here the Inca stonework is truly impressive: walls have rounded sections, wrapped around a contour and also extended out at the bottom and the whole structure rivals (to our opinion, at least) with the Machu Picchu ruins.
We are now in the late afternoon and the light gets better and better and the entire region looks magical, especially when we move to the final destination of the day, Chinchero. Here, in the middle of huge, snowy peaks, we walk through the picturesque alleys and gaze to the colonial church, built on Inca foundations, before the sun disappears behind the mountains in a magic atmosphere.
Chinchero is probably the most typical town in the sacred Valley of the Incas, here the conquerors wanted to "civilize" and establish their culture, but they were never able to achieve it completely. Its inhabitants still live in the almost untouched Inca constructions where their ancestors lived.
Machu Picchu
The next day we moved to Machu Picchu Pueblo, to visit our final destination: the wonder of the world Machu Picchu Ruins.
We leave Cusco by train. Travel is in "Vistadome" Class. After a couple of hours the train arrives in Aguas Calientes (‘hot water’) the closest town to Machu Picchu, where we stayed all day long talking a rest in the local spa.
Aguas Calientes only exists because from there it is possible to take a bus ride to the top of the mountain to visit the ruins. The ride takes about thirty minutes due to the numerous switchbacks present in the road to the top. Another remarkable destination is the climb to the top of the steep Huayna Picchu, the famous ‘haystack’ mountain visible behind the ruins: we decided to miss it because of the pregnancy of my wife (you must have the stamina to climb that high, the path is really steep!).
Keep in mind that If you want to fully enjoy the sightseeing of the ruins, you have to arrive there very early in the morning, as we did: the day after our arrival in Aguas Calientes, after a quick breakfast we were ready for the first bus at 5.00, so we were inside the site in time to see the first sunrays on the surrounding peaks and had the time to fully enjoy our walk trough the alleys and the ruins of the place before the arrival of the crowd in the middle of morning.
Machu Picchu was the last destination of our trip to Peru. The next day we moved back to Lima and returned to Italy.

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