Blogs from Peru, South America - page 1150

November 18, 2005 (Lima, Peru) Shannon: Greetings from Lima! Sean and I arrived here in Peru on Tuesday and we’ve spent the last 4 days exploring all that Lima has to offer. We are staying in the Miraflores district of the city, which is a somewhat “upscale” area that was probably once a separate city altogether but has since been swallowed up in the sprawl of Lima. The immediate thing that hit us upon arrival was the change in weather - it is so much cooler here than in Panama that it was disorienting at first. Whereas Panama was HOT (I think the Devil himself winters in Panama City), Lima in November is something more akin to a San Francisco spring. Cool breezes blow in off the Pacific coast and when the sun goes down we ... read more

Apparament certaines personnes se demandent ce que je fais a part tuer des poulets. Je vais essayer d'etre un peu plus clair et precis. On est finalement en train de faire du volontariat dans une association nommee ADRA basee a Pucallpa et qui a pour but de lutter contre la pauvrete des communautes indigenes de la region de l'Ucayali. Ils construisent des puits, organisent leur agriculture et surtout les sensibilisent aux problemes lies a l'hygiene. Jusqu'a present, au jour le jour ce qu'on faisait concretement : on peut appeler ca du tourisme ecologique, sauf qu'en plus on donnaient des cours 2 heures par jour aux indigenes. Le reste du temps on essayait de s'adapter aux conditions, on allait pecher, on jouait au foot avec eux, en gros on essayait de s'integrer un minimum. Mais c'est illusoire, ... read more

The first time I came to Puno I decieded that I did not want to see Los Uros. Aren´t they just a bunch of floating tourist shops, no? But this time however, I had a morning to kill before I caught a collectivo to the boader. So I thought I would drift out there and think of it as a trip to a museo, complete with actors. The fist Isla we visited was the most interesting as the "local" gave us the root of the weed they use to make the island from to eat. It didn´t really have any flavour. The locals themselves no longer eat the stuff either, they get all their food from Puno. Bascially the locals work on some sort of rotation- a few weeks on, a few weeks off, so the ... read more

Sun. I2th. Nov. PUNO. Hotel & town not up to our usual standard, but we are only here to do the islands on Lake Titicaca. We were bused down to the harbour where we boarded a launch with 20 other people. We went onto the top deck and had great views of the reeds. 3/4 hour later the launch berthed alongside the floating island, and as we jumped off you could feel the movement of the reeds on the water. Their teepees are made of reeds and the locals cook and carry on a normal life on this floating island. Even the canoe was constructed with reeds, and fools that we are, we trusted it to take us to the other Uros island. -- Brilliant! Back on the normal boat and a pleasant cruise to Tequili ... read more

we have explored peru for the 1st 3 weeks of the trip. Starting off in lima, we travelled down the coast to see the Nasca lines. Next stop, Arequipa and Colca canyon at 4000m up. the dry run for the atitude of the inca trail.... read more