The largest percentage of our trip will be spent in Peru. Deb lived in Lima for three years as a child, so she is very excited to be returning to this country of her youth for the first time in 25 years. We will enter Peru at Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We are doing the four-day Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu. We meet up with our friends Phillip, Kathleen and Jessica at Machu Picchu, and after absorbing these breathtaking ruins, we'll all return to Cuzco (via Ollantaytambo) for the Inti Raymi festival. Next we plan to do a four-day Amazon jungle trip out of Cuzco, then it's off to Nazca, Huacachina, and Lima. After Lima, we will head into the mountians near Huaraz where we will do another trek or two. Then it's back to the coast to visit ruins at Trujillo & Chiclayo. We'll cross the border into Ecuador near Piura, after forty glorious days in Peru.
Monday, July 17, 2006 at 8:32PM Plaza San Martin is also surrounded by beautiful colonial buildings and in the centre of the plaza is of course a statue of General Jose San Martin, Peru’s liberator. Underneath the big statue is another statue of Madre Patria, who amusingly has a small llama on her head due to a misunderstanding on the part of the people in Spain who made the statue.
Monday, July 17, 2006 at 8:34PM My first view of the house was quite disappointing – a new brick wall had been built in front of it, instead of the nice white one that used to be there and there was a big sign saying “VENDO”. It was for sale. I expected the place to be empty, but when I rang the bell someone from a construction crew answered the door.
Monday, July 17, 2006 at 8:37PM Today was our last day in Lima. We spent it re-packing our bags, getting laundry done, and going to a couple of museums. The first one was the Museo de la Nacion, which had good exhibits on the various pre-Incan civilizations of Peru. There were lots of ceramics, and replicas from various ruins found around Peru.
Monday, July 17, 2006 at 8:39PM Huaraz has a beautiful setting, being surrounded by the Cordillera Blanca, the Cordillera Negra and the Cordillera Huayhuash, Peru’s three most spectacular mountain ranges, and the second-highest mountain ranges in the world (after the Himalayas).
Tuesday, July 25, 2006 at 3:56PM Sorry for the delay...the entry about our Santa Cruz Trek is now here!