Best of Peru Adventures

The Best of Peru Adventures with Crooked Trails, May 2005

After a short tour of Lima, we headed north for 8 hours and 250 miles on the night bus to Huaraz, which became our jumping off spot to visits to the villages of Vicos, Huaripampa, and Huamachuco. While in Huaraz, we enjoyed great food and were constantly entertained by the El Senor de la Soledad Festival. We took an afternoon trip out to Huaripampa to visit with a weavers cooperative.

During our visit to Vicos, we lived in adjacent buildings. Small groups of us ate with and helped our host families. We hiked up to their potato and tuber fields to dig up the vegetables for a community feast called Panchama feast or mother earth feast. Most of their marriages are arranged. They have no electricity or running water.

In our visit to Huamachuco, we learned that many supplement their income by providing guide and porter service to the tourists who hike and climb the famous Cordillera Blanca Mountains. Our highlight here was a hike up to Lake 69 at about15,000 feet where we drank hot mate from china cups and ate meat and cheese sandwiches while resting by the bluest lake in the world.

We traveled by private bus to Chinchero where we toured the Inca ruins and visited a weavers coop. We had demonstrations of weaving and wool dying. Our lunch included the national Peruvian foods of potatoes and cuy or guinea pig.

We continued our journey Cusco where we saw many celebrations and enjoyed the food and nightlife. On our way to Machu Picchu we spent the night in Ollantaytambo where we unexpectedly came across a huge three-day festival that was ending that day. We joined the festivalgoers. There were more than twenty groups that were dressed in various costumes ranging from drunken cowboys,whip dancers, lawyers with very long noses, bejeweled step dancers, bolo dancers, to fancy hat dancers. There were also horse riders who tried to grab a corncob that was suspended over the raceway on a rope.

The following morning, we caught the train to kilometer 104 where we began our day hike along the Royal Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. We entered Machu Picchu through the Gate of the Sun in the late afternoon to see Machu Picchu for the first time as the crowds cleared out.

In the morning, we return to Machu Picchu to catch the morning light and the sounds of the flute playing by the Peruvian guides. We spend the day exploring Machu Picchu. I climbed to the top of Wuyanu Picchu where I was greeted by the local hawk that was more adept at catching tourists goodies than field mice.

After returning to Cusco again, we then headed to Lake Titicaca stopping at Rachqui for a short tour and some strawberry chicha before spending the night in Puno. Our boat tour the following day included visits to the Uros floating island community and Taquille before arriving at the resort island of Suasi for the evening.

After returning to Puno, the group headed back to Lima, and I continued on to take a flight over the Nazca lines which are a series of geoglyphs in a variety of animal shapes that can only be seen from high overhead like in a small plane. These were created by the Nazca culture between 200 BC an 700 AD. It is just amazing to imagine how and why they created these shapes.

This video is 53 minutes long. Rick Hunt filmed it May 2005. For more travel pictures go to: www.huntforgold.homestead.com

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Peru
• Lima
• Huaraz
• Vicos
• Huaripampa
• Huamachuco
• Lake 69
• Machu Picchu
• Nazca Lines
• Uros
• Taquille
• Cusco
• Ollantaytambo
• festivals
• Puno
• Rachqui
• chicha
• Chinchero
• Cordillera Blanca
• Panchamama
• cuy
• weavers
• Inca ruins
• Lake Titicaca
• guinea pig
• peruvian
• pisco sour
• el beso
• Royal Inca Trail
• hiking
• dance contest
• Quecha
• saints
• priests
• churches