Back From Peru!

My Mom and I got back yesterday from our whirlwind tour of some of the highlights of Peru. Overall, we had a fantastic adventure. Peru is a very interesting place...it isn't really set up for tourism yet, so it takes some work to get from place to place. It is the rainy season there, so our planes were delayed a few times for fog, etc. But, these things were erased by the unbelievable things that we saw once we made it to our destinations.
The first place we went was Lima, and we basically spent a few days just relaxing and touring around there. We took a day trip to a town called, "Pucusana", which is a fishing town. It was quite a site with all of the fishing boats and hustle of the harbor.


After that, we went to Arequipa. Arequipa was the place that reminded us that we were in a 3rd world country. The center of the city was very nice, but the moment you stepped out of the center, the entire "real" Arequipa consisted of huts with tin roofs, holes for windows, garbage everywhere, and dogs everywhere (most of the time in the garbage). The landscape was very beautiful, which was a stark contrast to how the people lived. When we left by car for the few hour drive to Culca Canyon, we were really reminded of where we are when we had to pull over and wait for some goats to pass by....

The drive to the canyon took us through very interesting landscape, where we saw a wild cousin of the camel, the Vicuna, which kind of looks like a camel/llama (but pretty small), we saw rabbits with long, curly tails, and oddest of all, Flamingos (at about 13,000 feet). The canyon is the second largest in the world, and is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. But because we were there for their summer, the canyon is totally green and is papered with terraces that the local indigenous people still farm. It was like going back in time. The people that live here wake up every morning and walk with their livestock to their family terraces and farm all day, only returning just before dark. Needless to say, there were llamas, goats, cows, donkeys, and sheep everywhere. They even had a donkey jail in the town for when a farmer finds someone elses donkey eating on their terrace...the owner has to pay to get the offending donkey out. Here are two pictures. The first is just one view of the canyon, the second is at a lookout point for Condors. It was very bizzaar to be above the clouds.


The next place we went (skipping all the traveling details), was Cusco. This is a much more bustling city than Arequipa. It is also strewn with Incan ruins, and beautiful architecture. We took a train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes...the town closes to Maccu Picchu. The first day we went up to Maccu Picchu, it rained the whole time and eventually got so fogged in, we just threw in the towel. But we stayed at a great hotel there, so we had the opportunity to go back the next day and the weather was nearly perfect. Now, the climate of Aguas Calientes is completely different than the other places we were. We went from pretty arid terrain and snowy Andes to what really looked like a jungle. I guess where we were was kind of the "gateway" to the Amazon. It really looked like king kong was going to burst out at any moment. Giant, pointy green mountains, low clouds, thick jungle, and very rainy. The scenery was extremely mystical, and you could really picture the tribes climbing around these mountains.


After Cusco and Maccu Picchu, we went to Puno and Lake Titicaca. I have beautiful pictures of the lake that for some reason won't upload onto my computer...but I am still working on it....
So, that was a really brief summary of our trip. We had a fun time, managed to avoid eating Guinea Pig and Alpaca, and saw a lot of amazing scenery.