Blogs from Peru, South America - page 1116

We were going to do the 4-day Inca trail. Day 1: A train takes us to start of the trail. This day is mostly quiet, just walking uphill on the old inca trail which is made up of broken steps now. The altitude was having an effect and our going was already slow. On the way we saw some old ruins, had a nice soup based lunch prepared by the cook. On the way it had started raining a bit, but we were prepared of that. At a high point, we stopped and the guide told us about the trail and ruins etc. It was nice surreal place, covered in clouds on the path of famous Incas. Day 2: Today is the toughest day of hike. We will be climbing 1500ft, then down 1500ft and then ... read more

The Inca Trail is a 43km 4 day hike throught the Andes starting at Km82 and finishing at Machu Picchu the most famous and beautiful Inca ruins in the world. There was 15 in our group, almost all over 25, and we would spend the 4 days negotiating the trail with expert knowledge supplied by our amazing and charming guide Omar, who may be the best Peruvian ever. I knew before signing up it was going to be hard with the second day featuring a 1200m ascent called Dead Womens pass and the third day involving 3600 steps (very loosely applied term, its a very steep rocky trail) down the mountain nick named Gringo Killer due to the amount of serious injuries suffered by tourist. All this at an altitiude which peaked at 4300m and temperatures ... read more

Well, we have all returned from our 8 day hike in the Cordillera Blanca and were not at all disappointed by the last second change in plans to this hike. In fact, the landslide blocking the Cordillera Huayhuash was likely a blessing in disguise. For the parents, we are currently all in relatively good health, though Jill did not feel her best earlier today. For tomorrow, we are on to the big city of Lima once again, as we make our way to Cusco by way of Nasca. On to the entry! We woke early to wait by the curb for our guide. The destination: the Cedros, or Alpamayo, Circuit. We were expecting him to arrive around 7 am in a red car, but the car could be variable since the plans had changed without discussing ... read more

Thousands of years ago, the people of Nasca had drawn lines in the desert mountains.. thats why we went to there. There are loads of theories why, my fav is that they were communicating with aliens. They had drawn, amongst others, a spider,a hummingbird, a monkey, a parrot, an astronaught (!), a dog.. We hired a small aircraft (4 seats) and of course, a pilot- and went up 500m in the sky to look at the lines. I got to be co-pilot, It was fab. Lo and Lotte in the back, being my passengers.. reminded me of home! Walker tours to the next level. Monkey.. left side... under the wing.... The drawings were really clear and very symmetrical, the strangest thing was that the mountains appeared to be flattened somehow. My photos dont really show the ... read more

Well, since our arrival in Peru the action has been seemingly non-stop. We wasted a whole day in Arequipa because of our late night arrival the day prior. We wanted to go horseback riding to the Canyon de Colca but we would have had to organize a private group, or simply pay out our ears for such an adventure... instead we hired a ride out to Chivay and spent time there in the hot springs, seeing some Peruvian folk music and then getting out to the miradors (lookouts) to see the canyon and some condors. I didn´t realize it at the time but Arequipa is actually extremely high in elevation, we were nearly at sea level when we crossed the border into Peru and our 5 hour bus ride north did not seem uphill the whole ... read more