Blogs from Lima, Lima, Lima, Peru, South America - page 31

From La Paz we crossed the border into Peru. Our first stop in Peru was Puno, as small town on the edge of Lake Titicaca. From here we took a boat to the floating reed islands on Lake Titicaca. There are 42 floating islands where people actually live and we were shown how they build the islands and the houses ... clever stuff! Next we took a boat over to Amantini Islands where we stayed with a local family for the night. It was a bit bizarre as they didn´t speak English and we haven´t learnt much conversational Spanish so there were lots of silences! Despite being awkward, tt was good to see how they lived and eat real local food. In the evening we got dressed up in local costumes (girls in embroided blouses and ... read more

Von Arequipa aus fuhren wir mehr als 6´000 Hoehenmeter herunter nach Porto Inca, wo wir zwei Naechte blieben. Es war schoen, mals nichts zu tun. Nachher fuhren wir nach Nazca wo wir wieder campierten. Nazca ist beruehmt fuer seiine Nazcalinien. Sie bilden ein Netz von ueber 800 Linien, 300 geometrischen Figuren (Geoglyphen) und etwa 70 Tier- und Plfanzenzeichnungen auf einer trockenen Ebene von rund 500 km2. Die Linien sind nur aus der Luft zu erkennen und entstanden ca. 900 bis 600 vor Christus! Wir bestiegen deshalb ein kleines Flugzeug um die Figuren von oben zu betrachten. War ein ziemlich ruckliger Flug und mein Nachbar musste sich uebergeben. Ich war dann auch froh, als wir wieder sicheren Boden unter den Fuessen hatten. Am naechsten Tag fuhren wir schon um 05.30 h los nachdem wir alles zusammengepackt hatten. ... read more

Immediately after we left the Galápagos Islands, we hopped on a flight to Lima, Peru, from where we would connect to our next flight to Iquitos------the beginning of our Amazon River segment. We deliberately arranged to have a couple of days to rest in Lima, so we were there for two nights. That should be perfect to have a little time to see a magnificent old city with so much history. Well, we discovered that the little time we allotted wasn't little enough! Lima is fading away and is being overtaken by a population explosion, mainly the masses of rural poor moving into the city and overwhelming the ability of the city to support the influx. Consequently there is much incidence of thefts, and every tourist or person who looks as if he could have ... read more

For de som ikke er helt oppdatert paa hva Machu Picchu egentlig er, saa skal vi ta en kort briefing (som vi selv gjorde foer turen=)). Machu Picchu anses som det fremste symbolet paa inkakulturen og ligger rundt hoye fjelltopper i Andesfjellene i Peru. Inkabyen Machu Picchu er spektakulaer i alle betydninger av ordet. "Inkaenes tapte by", som den ogsaa kalles, ligger paa 2350 meters hoyde midt i Perus fantastiske fjellverden. Paa det meste skal det ha bodd mellom 750 og 1000 personer her oppe. Forskere mener inkaene startet aa bygge byen i 1440 og at byen var bebodd helt frem til den spanske erobringen av Peru i 1532. Byen ble gjenoppdaget saa sent som i 1911 av Yale-forskeren Hiram Bingham, men hadde vært kjent for de lokale Quechua boendene i aarhundrer. En 11 aar gammel ... read more

Unfortunately since we had to be in Cusco for the 3rd March, we only got to spend one night in Lima. Having listened to everyone saying how horrible Lima was, we weren’t expecting much and weren’t too worried about spending long here. However, Lima turned out to be quite a cool city. Yes, it was busy, noisy, and a bit dangerous but so are most big cities. The colonial centre was beautiful, and the food was great (much better than Ecuador!). Another day or two here would have been nice. img= http://photos-857.ll.facebook.com/photos-ll-sf2p/v191/89/64/193107857/n193107857_35249665_4087.jpg center Lima Plaza de Armas, a really nice place to enjoy good food for an hour or four. Supposedly, once a year, the authoroties fill the central fountain with Pisco Sour (the local liquor - or paint stripper, we couldn´t work it out which) ... read more