This map outlines my travels in Peru. I started in Lima and then went southeast to Cuzco and then continued from there. Below is a chronological description of where I went.
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picassa site for more pictures
Lima - I flew into Lima via First Class with Brian Starr. We met up with Drew Gemmer at the hostel and then proceeded to take a 20 hour bus ride to Cuzco after being in Lima less than a day.
Cuzco - Is an awesome little tourist city. There's great food there including Cuy which is basically baked Guinea pig. We spent a couple of days here doing absolutely nothing but eating and reading our books and walking around.
Machu Pichu - Was sweet. We couldn't get on the well known and popular "Inca Trail" hike so we signed up for an alternative trip.
The first day we started up above 4000M and we rode some mountain bikes down hill for 4 hours or so. I think we dropped at least 2500M in those couple of hours. Everyone that had done the death road in La Paz claimed that our biking trip was better than in Bolivia.
Day two we hiked about a mile on real Inca trail roads which were pretty cool and basically carved into the side of a mountain with steps and all. Otherwise the rest of the day was filled with "short-cuts" which entailed walking behind people's houses in the middle of nowhere. We ended up at the town of Santa Teresa which had these money hot springs, which included an almost olympic sized swimming pool filled with hot water.
Day three we hiked along some train tracks all day long and ended up at Aguas Calientes, the town right under Machu Pichu. Later we hiked up a mountain next to Machu Pichu which gave us a great view down towards Machu Pichu and the switch-back road that leads up to the ancient city.
Day four included waking up early at 4 or so and racing up to Machu Pichu only to learn that sunrise wasn't till 7:30. Anyways, it was still amazing to see the sunrise up there with a small trick of tourists before the midday rush. The day concluded with leaving Aguas Calientes via train and partying with our Inca Trail Group back in Cuzco. Our guide Edwardo got bored with us cause we wanted to sit around at a bar and talk instead of dancing the night away at a club. So to keep himself busy he just did a couple of lines of coke and was cool for the night.
Puno - We took the train to Puno which took all day long. In Puno we saw Lago Titicaca and a bunch of floating islands made of reed which people have lived on for hundreds of year. The lake is definitely a lot prettier from the Bolivian side of Copacabana and Puno is possibly the ugliest city that I visited my entire trip.
Arequipa - is Peru's second largest city and is surrounded by a number of large snow caped volcanoes which makes the city quite pretty. It is also very laid back and is was one of my favorite places. It was here in Arequipa that I found some
Saltenas that rivaled the ones I found in Bolivia made by Dona Gato which are the best in the world.
Colca Canyon - Brian, Drew, and I hiked down into the deepest canyon into the world, and to the very bottom. However it wasn't very impressive cause the walls aren't very steep and it's hard to get a grasp of how deep it really is. Grand Canyon is much more impressive and picturesque. However we did get to see a lot of Andean Condors flying around. There were a bunch of little villages in the canyon and we stayed with the locals down there for a couple of nights.
Mancora - This is the hot place to show off your "bod" during the summer. However it was winter and I was there with a handful of other tourists and locals. I learned to surf, ate
Ceviche, made Ceviche, and did nothing but sit in a hammock. There were a lot of cool people here including a 60 year old male English professor for somewhere in Europe who tried to kiss me one night. He even invited me to his hotel room telling me that he was always available to talk about anything with me. I only intended on spending 2 days here but somehow I managed to stay for 5
Trujillo - I blazed through this town on the way to Huaraz, without even spending the night. I saw some pre-Incan ruins called Chan Chan that were enormous but otherwise there was not too much here.
Huaraz - My time here was shorter than I wanted because of the extended stay in Mancora. However in two days I was able to do quite a bit. The first day I went rock climbing with some local dude named Orlando who had no front teeth. He had no gear except for shoes, so I had to rent stuff for him in addition to myself. Dana the lady who rented me the gear also decided to come climb with us and she also used the gear I rented. I think that after she got my business, she decided that that was enough work for a day so then she could take the rest of the day off. The second day I went into Huascaran National Park and hiked around. I was trying to make it to a lake called Lago 69, however I took the wrong trail and made it up to the Pisco base camp instead at 5000M. Doing anything that high is impossible. I had to catch my breath every 2 steps and my heart felt like it was going to come out of my chest the entire time. I think that I'll leave mountaineering to people who like pain and agony.
Lima quite a bit but on a much smaller scale. It also - Spent a day here exploring the city with my friend Samantha from Mancora. We took the bus all around and saw Centro Lima and the Catacombs. Lima reminds me of Buenos Airessurprises me how "white" the people in Lima are in comparison to the rest of the country and how much money some of the people there have to spend while a large portion of the city is living in complete poverty.
And that's my trip
Books I read -
"Catch 22" Josheph Heller
"Guns, Germs, and Steel" Jared Diamond
"Dreaming in Cuban" Christina Garcia
"Saturday" Ian McEwan
"All the Names" Jose Saramago
Most listend to song - "Are you that Somebody" Aaliyah
