Here is a quick summary of my trip:
My first day was in Miraflores, an uptown district of Lima, the capital of Peru. I was thrilled right from day one!
Miraflores and the Pacific Ocean Front
Arequipa is an artist town. I was pulled into one Christian rock show and then several people were simply jamming together with guitars, flutes, drums and other instruments at the central Plaza.
Plaza de Armas (Central Square), Arequipa
Next 2 days were spent trekking in Colca Canyon – the deepest canyon in the world.
Descending into the Colca Canyon
Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca, is a quiet little town with nothing much to do other than catching some sleep and doing laundry.
View of Puno town from neighboring hill
I stayed next 2 days with Quechuan villagers on islands in lake Titicaca, the highest inhabitated lake in the world.
Islands on lake Titicaca
If you haven’t been to Machu Picchu, what did you do in Peru?
Machu Picchu, the lost city of Incas, hidden between clouds
The Sacred Valley of the Incas has several ruins and wonderful architectural and historical sites.
Pisac, a town in Sacred Valley
Cusco, the ancient capital of the Incas, is very touristy city. This was my last night in the interior of Peru and I was so disappointed to go back.
Plaza de Armas, Cusco
Lima city and its colonial quarters was where I spent my last day before heading over to Toronto.
Central Lima
Detailed posts on each of these places, and many more will follow over next few weeks. Hopefully I am able to maintain blogging pace. Thanks for your patience
I got up on one Sunday morning with an acute hangover and declared to my roommate that I needed a vacation. Since a couple of months, I have been monitoring flight ticket prices to the following destinations: South America, Morocco and Egypt. Within an hour then, I had booked a flight to Lima.
So all I had at that point was a valid ticket to visit Peru two weeks from then. I was totally clueless about things to do there, and I didn’t have a tourist visa, or an approval of vacation from work or an approval of break from school or any knowledge of Spanish, and finances in jittery… and so on. I discovered that I knew nothing, nothing at all about Peru other than that the Guava fruit was called Peru (पेरू) in Marathi and I like green Guavas a lot.
Obviously, things started falling in place; I got all approvals, arranged for vitamin M and did my research thoroughly. In no time, I was on my way…
- – -
I’m back from Peru now and I had lot of fun and adventure packed into those two weeks spent there, almost like a zip file, which left me craving for more. I also learnt a lot of things about being a better traveler, better citizen and about the infinite world out there that is waiting to be explored. I met several interesting people who had been on the road for as short as a week to as long as over a year – wow. I am barely a beginner in my quest to travel the world.
I kept a journal during this trip and over the next few weeks I’ll post relevant scraps from it. It will, hopefully, give you a preview that’s tempting enough for you to pack your bags and get going.
As always, comments and suggestions are sought and appreciated.
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