Blogs from Peru, South America - page 1136

I am all packed and ready for adventure.... read more

This guy was sent on a journey to find the navel of the earth. He found it nine thousand feet above sea level in the Andes. Cuzco is a great town. It was once the capital of the Incan empire, than a colonial outpost, and now its an international travel destination because of it´s proximity to Macchu Picchu. On Tuesday, I checked out of my hotel in Trujillo at 2pm. I spent the next eight hours wandering the streets of that colonial town. I tried this new game called: pretend you don´t speak English (or Spanish). These guys who seemed like they were trying to rob me, but were really trying to sell me soda, started asking me where I was from in Spanish, then English. I pretended like I barely understood what they were saying. ... read more

As fas as being on the tourist trail is concerned, Cuzco is right up there. The discovery of Machu Picchu some hundred years before turned what was once a relative backwater into something of a tourist hotspot. It was with some cynisism therefore that we travelled to Cuzco - but how could you possibly visit Peru without seeing Machu Picchu? For those that don't know what all the fuss is about, Machu Picchu is the most complete Inca city discovered, perched atop a mountain in the a most innaccessible region of Peru. The location itself is incredible enough, let alone the incredibly well preserved ruins that sit precariously in the clouds. Our arrival in Cuzco went according to plan, avoiding the many touts by virtue of a prior reservation secured (including a sizable discount - low ... read more

You know that song by the Buena Vista Social Club: Chan Chan. Yeah, I like that song. You know that ancient city by the Chimu People: Chan Chan. Yeah, I like that ancient city. I went to the ruins fifteen minutes from Trujillo. They were pretty impressive, I mean no pyramids or anything, but big walls. At one time sixty thousand people lived here. I didn´t want to pay the six dollars for a tour guide, so I sort of lurked behind groups of English-speaking tourists. I heard that when the ruler of the city died, hundreds of teenage girls killed themselves as they brought his body throughout his region. Crazy. I ended up taking antibiotics for the mild case of dysentary I probably don´t have. I went to the farmacia, and asked for the pills... ... read more

I was in Piura from Friday through Sunday. I hung out with Zandi and her Peace Corps friends. They had a barbecue, I ate cow heart, it wasn´t bad. That town was laid back. I didn´t do much... I watched a movie, ate some food, hung out... enjoyable. Last night I came to Trujillo... the biggest town in northern Peru. It seems like a good place, they´ve got ruins and shit. I´ve been feeling kind of sick... (rhymes with ¨craveller´s biahrea¨) so I´m taking it easy today... I just tried to upload my pictures... but the computer erased them all... it is pretty disappointing because I had a picture of some hardcore Lima graffiti, it repped ¨Harry Potter.¨ Oh the laughs we could have had. ... read more