Blogs from Peru, South America - page 1139

Had I learned of the definition of Peru´s world heritage site before completing the gruelling Inca Trail, perhaps it might have made me walk faster with curiosity! Macchu Picchu translated into the traditional Peruvian language of Quechua means "Old Penis". It's not exactly what I´ve been striving for, in fact completely opposite might be more appropriate! I met the gang that I would be walking with for four days, the night before the 6am pickup. We were a small group, and providing all personalities get on that can be a good thing. But who can really tell at the beginning? Karsten was the Dutch banker living in Switzerland, Liesbeth was the Belgian living on a boat in Italy, and Janes was the German student travelling South America. I was thankful I had another girl to gossip ... read more

So we left Arequipa is search of a bit of hiking... Down into the 2nd deepest canyon in the world seem to fit the bill for an afternoons walk. Lets start at the beginning. Took a bus from Arequipa, which is estentially situated in a desert, over a 4800 m pass where there was snow, ending up in Colca de Canyon where there was once again cati... a bit crazy! The upper portion of the canyon is heavily terraced and used since the time of the Inca (500 years ago) to grow corn, potatoes, and barley. This is a bit of a change as everywhere eles that we have seen terraces its been rice, rice, and more rice. 1st nite was spent in Yanque with a family. We walked down through the terraces to a hotsprings ... read more

Hi folks... first off the key boards down here are a little bit different so bear with the odd funny symbol! Oh ya, were on vacation so expect grammatical errors and runon sentences. Theres also a map of Peru included on the site so that you can see where we are. Wow... so we finally left Lima and headed down the coast spending a nite in the coastal town of Pisco. We had excellent seafood and made a trip out to the 'Islas Ballestas' a.k.a the poor man´s Galapagos Islands. Thousands upon thousands of birds swarm over head.... and we made it through without incident! About every 7 years some folks go out and collect all the poop (guano) to make fertilizer for all our gardens. Birds, Birds, Birds, some penguins and of course sea loins. ... read more

We left Ollantaytambo at 8am, and made the 45 minute drive to the first checkpoint of the Inca Trail. At the checkpoint you have your passport stamped and they check your visa to allow you to undertake the trail. Heading the the trail for us was Julio, and four other guides. We are also accompanied by Porters ( who are mostly local farmers who do the trail 5 times a month!!! ), who carry our luggage ( 5kgs ), and all the other equipment we need for camping ( food, tents, cooking eqiupment etc etc ). These porters carry around 20kgs each. They are completely unreal! The first day of the trail is ok, the weather is humid and there aren´t too many climbs to go up. However because of the altitude, it is harder to ... read more

We departed from the hotel at 8am, was met by our new guide for the next few days, Julio. We had to bring a day bag from now on, to be used for the Inca Trail, and were given a bag to carry no more than 5kg for our other essenstials. We first visited an Incan site on the edge of the City, a former Incan military site named Saksaywaman. We then drove on to the Sacred Valley. Again the views are incredible, the film The Sound of Music could almost be filmed here. We drove to the small town of Pisac. Pisac has a big local market, so we were given time to do the touristy thing and do some shopping. Then on to another amazing Incan site ( cant remember the name ). We ... read more