Blogs from Amazonas, Peru, South America - page 8

Do Chachapoyasu jsme dorazili brzy rano a hned se shaneli po minibusu do vesnice Tingo, kde jsme se ubytovali v mistni hospedaje - hospoda s bydlenim. Okamzite vyrazili smerem ke Kuelapu, misto asi 4 hodiny /podle mistnich 2-3h/ vzdalenem, vystavenem kmenem Chacha, pozdeji obydleny Inky. Cesta byla kruta - prekonali jsme prevyseni celkem 1500metru- coz znamena porad do kopce a navic nam nepralo pocasi, tedy hodne svitilo slunce...Stalo to ale za to. Na celou stavbu se pouzilo 3 x vice stavebniho materialu nez na velkou pyramidu v Egypte. Je postaven z vapence a jeho obranne zdi jsou asi 20 metru vysoke. Bylo zde asi 200 kamennych domu a z nich se dochovaly pouze zaklady, i kdyz se mistni snazi alespon cast rekonstruovat a jeden dum je na ukazku hotovy cely i se strechou. Kolem i vevnitr ... read more

Our visit to the Amazon Jungle has been incredible so far and we are sad to be moving on, though the mosquito bites are helping ease our sadness. ((warning - the pictures don´t line up with the text, to see the rest of the photos scroll down and hit 2 or next (then scroll to the bottom of that page))). We arrived a week ago and within minutes fell in love with Iquitos - our flight was easy and certainly made it hard to accept that we were far far away from any other city. In fact, Iquitos is the largest city in the world this inaccessible - you can´t drive here, you can only fly in or take a boat (a looong boat ride). I was feeling kind of sick so we really just spent ... read more

Hi all, We leave the coast region of Peru, heading to Chachapoyas, situated more than 14 hour ride east from Trujillo, in the mountains. We intend to spend a couple of last days exploring another aspect of Peruvian ancient cultures. Our goal is the fortress of Kuelap. We arrive at 0530 in the morning, but no worries - Peruvians are early birders so there is no problem at all to find a descent hotel, adjacent to the Plaza del Armas (main square), and set a guided tour to 2 interesting archeological sites, not far from Chacha' (local nickname for the city). Pueblo del muertes ('city of the dead) and Karajia, are 2 burial sites, located in the remotest places one can imagine. Both burial sites are clinging to sheer cliffs, and it took us a 2 ... read more

Floating down the amazon There are two ways to get to the northern amazon in Peru - flying or by boat because the city Iquitos is surrounded by water. The cheaper route is by boat so that was our obvious choice. However, it is not as glamorous as one may think. It was not a river boat cruise - it was a cargo ship packed to the brim with cows, pigs, chickens, tons of bananas, motorcycles, hundreds of Peruvians who live in villages along the river and 10 crazy tourists. After an intense 23 hours of traveling by bus and combi, we arrived to Yurimaguas, the port town that the cargo ships leave from. We arrived with an hour before departure, which also happened to be smack in the middle of the siesta. We quickly ran ... read more

So… we crossed the border into Peru on December 2nd and arrived safely in the city called Jaen, after a long journey of about 14 hours (!), using almost all means of overland wheeled transportation, we pulled off the motorbike taxi near the Cesar Hotel in Jaen and took a deep breath of relief. We left the small village Vilcabamba, which turned out to be a disappointment, with the 6:30am bus to Zumba on the way to the neglected border point La Balsa. We were ‘lucky’ to stop half way at the village of Palanda for their celebration of a 12th anniversary for the region, this hindered us for about an hour and a half with scores of marching bands of children closing the route for their celebrations, and although it was a nuisance to be ... read more