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Peru, July 2006

 

We went to Lima, Peru; stayed at a hotel in the suburb of Lince (dug up streets); visited MiraFlora on the coast; and looked around central Lima with colleagues. The tourist features seem to be Catholic Churches and the Church's cruel past. An evening organised by our hosts featured traditional dancing: dance2 (3.0 MB), and dance3 (3.4 MB). (You may need to download these before playing.)  (See this streaming QuickTime video of Lima.)

Peter worked at SENAMHI,the Peru Meteorological and Hydrological Agency, presenting with WMO GURME colleagues, a course on air pollution forecasting. SENAMHI is a GURME supporter.

We flew to Iquitos on the Amazon, staying there for a day.

 

See this (streaming QuickTime video of Iquitos.)

 

By motor boat 130 km upriver to Muyuna Lodge for a week to observe life on the river. We booked direct with Muyuna Lodge.

Flew to Cusco (the centre of the old Inca culture) and stayed there for four days to acclimatise at high altitude. We toured around the vicinity a bit. Jannette got severe food poisoning. (See this streaming QuickTime video of Cusco.)

 

We would liked to have gone further south to Nazca to see the Nazca Lines.

(See this streaming QuickTime video of a few of the Lines.)

Peter walked the Inca Trail (4 days, 42 km, 70,000 footsteps, up to 4215 m asl) and met Jannette at Machu Picchu. The guide, Isaac, called the local porters (our group of 8 had 16!) who spoke Quechua (a version of the ancient Inca language), rocky faces.  The highest point of the Trail was Dead Woman's Pass. We booked three months in advance with SAS Travel.

The terrain of the Inca Trail was generally barren at first, but changed to alpine forests and rain forests before reaching Machu Picchu. There were many flowers but few birds evident on the Trail.

One of the group on the Inca Trail walk, Jason Mak, took these photos.

 

(I came across this video of Machu Picchu and this one is streaming QuickTime.)

 

 

 

Last Update: 3 September, 2006