Blogs from Peru, South America - page 1135

Interesting title hey. I just looked at my blog stats and it appears that you are getting board with my stuff. less readers for the last couple of stories. Do I need to get more advertuous for you guys or what. I am now in Iquitos my first stop in the jungle as I am heading down the Amazon tomorow by boat. I stop for a day in Lecticia Columbia should be interesting. then in to Brazil. There were a few places here that I wanted to photograph. yesturday I ventured off the beaten path a bit to far but nothing magor went astray. I wandered down the coast of the amazon in Iquitos to where the local slums began. you enter the slums through a market selling all kinds on strange fish Piraunas and manythings ... read more

Three hours from Copacabana, on the other side of Lake Titicaca is Puno. Everybody who comes here makes a visit to the floating islands of Uros on Lake Titicaca. The islands are made of totora reeds, which grows abundandly in the shallow parts of the Lake Titicaca. The reed seems to be quite a versatile plant. The people living on the islands use it for pretty much everything: they use it for the islands, they eat it, they burn it, and they build houses and boats and all sorts of things of it. We took a one day boat cruise on Lake Titicaca visiting the floating islands and Isla Taquile. Visiting the floating islands was an interesting experience but Isla Taquile was less impressive. After seeing Isla del Sol, Isla Taquile was just another island on ... read more

Peru Truck tour - 2nd half of 3 weeks+3days in Lima, 8-17th Feb.2006) Politics Continuing our journey to the coast away from Colca Canyon, one of our most knowledgeable guides filled our head with more info on Peru. I knew that one of the president candidate was a woman, which could be a softer alternative to the past military government and guerillos of the Shining Path, both accounting for 70,000 civilian deaths!. Her opponent is an extreme left wing ex-army (?!), supported by the Venezuelan Chavez in returning the land to the people (with massive nationalization first no doubt). Unfortunately, the land itself is now not as fertile as it was 600 years ago when the Inca expertly cultivated every single parcel. Both candidates are about to face charges on corruption or assault, so may the ... read more

Cuzco had been great, and we'd really enjoyed visiting the ancient sites of the Incas, but after over a week in the most touristy part of Peru we were happy to get out. We'd decided to take the train to Puno on the basis that... erm..... well, it wasn't a bus. The view was supposed to be quite spectacular, but I must confess that the main reason I wanted to go on the train was that I was bored of busses. The format of the train was such that we were sat opposite a nice American couple, Jeff and Darcy, who we spent hours chatting to on our way there. The train took no less than 4 hours more than the bus (!!) but fortunately the views were as stunning as we'd been promised, justifying the ... read more

Hi everyone... sorry we've been quiet for so long... busy settling in and just generally lazy about writing on the travel blog! I guess last notice was that we were looking for a place and that mike was a bit sick... since then, we've found a place, mike has got better and now has a brand new cold, I've been sick and become well, and we've adopted a kitty cat. We've made awesome friends (ie, Vaila, Cormac, Diane) and those friends have left us for rainy countries called 'home.'. I feel like a little kid in a kid's book I used to like about "little-while friends." Luckily, mike's my long-while friend and he tells me he won't leave until I do. Excellent! So here's a couple of photos of our new life. Teaching is suiting me ... read more