The World Through Our Lens
When it was finally time to set foot on the Inca Trail, we were guided by an authorized trail guide and accompanied by two other hikers, guides in training. Our adventure would be a one-day hike along the time-worn Inca Trail, headed for Machu Picchu. Our excitement was palpable.
After a night of heavy rains, Bob and I departed Puno aboard PeruRail’s Andean Explorer headed through the Andes Mountains for Cusco. Our early-morning departure soon left behind the very wet world of the village of Puno. Read more
It was an earlier start to the day as we made our way to the Arequipa airport to catch a flight across the Andes Mountains to Puno on Lake Titicaca in Peru. On our drive to the airport we had a chance to see the beautiful, conical, snow-capped volcano known as El Misti. Read more
Bright sunshine greeted us when Bob and I awoke in Arequipa, Peru at 6:30 a.m. It is amazing how a little sunlight can change the face of a place. When we emerged from our hotel with a city map in hand, the cobbled streets and high walls seemed less daunting than when we arrived in the dark the night before. Read more
Our destination heading south from Nazca on the Pan American Highway in Peru was the city of Arequipa. At 556 kilometers from Nazca, we figured the drive should take us about 6 hours and put us in Arequipa well before dark. The day’s drive, however, sure proved that calculation to be wrong.
In the harsh climate high in the mountain meadows of the National Reserve of Pampas Galeras in Peru lives the rarely seen vicuña. In 1974, the vicuña was declared an endangered species; at that time, only 6,000 of these animals were left alive in Peru. Today, there are about 350,000, and although it is actually considered very hard to catch a glimpse of vicuña in the wild, we managed to sight them in Peru. Read more
After visiting the Chauchilla Cemetery, our guide, Hilda, recommended a side trip to the Nazca Gold Processing plant in the village of Nazca. Bob and I were very surprised to see that the processing is done by foot. Read more
The Mummies of Chauchilla Cemetery in Peru, are the mummified bodies of ancient pre-hispanic Nazca people. As we soon learned on our tour, their bodies have been preserved because of the dry climate of the Nazca valley. Archaeologists have dated these grave sites to somewhere around 1000 AD, and it is believed the burials occurred here over the course of 600 years. Read more
Our drive from the town of Pisco, in Peru, towards the town of Nazca and the world-famous Nazca Lines of Peru took us away from the coastline and gradually entered an area of totally different terrain. Read more
After Bob made some hasty notes from a map on display at the main pavilion where neither staff or a handout was available, we then drove off into the dust of Paracas National Reserve located on the Paracas Peninsula in Peru. As we soon learned on our excursion, this reserve is a world of sandy wastelands, isolated beaches, and high ocean cliffs.
