languages spanish, quechua (incas), aymara + english in tourist destinations
3 major areas: the coast, the andes highlands with highest peak huascaran 6,768m + the tiny populated amazonas region (60% of the land and 12% of the population)
lima - 11m inhabitants, in 1535 demonstratively built by spanish conqueror francisco pizzaro on the ruins of destroyed inca city. few unesco heritage buildings in the city center. btw, it was quite difficult to swim in the pacific ocean there, probably more suitable for surfers 😉
independance from spain 1821 (argentina's san martin) + 1824 (venezuela's simon bolivar)
money: peruvian sol, 1 EUR = 4 SOL when changed at the bank / office / official dealers in the streets. 1 EUR = 3.85 SOL is the official exchange rate and your credit card rate when booked in SOL. 1 EUR = 3.45 SOL when by mistake chosen currency conversion at the ATM, 1 EUR = 3.65 SOL if the credit card invoice was booked in EUR => its up to you 😀
after in lima for the 1st time, i could again go swimmig in paracas, close to pisco (famous for pisco sour, the cocktail made with some local grape booz). yes, due to el nino has the water 22°C temperature which is +5°C above average and much much warmer then i would expect
panamericana, the longesst road / higway in the world. unfortunately often surrounded by tons of mostly plastic waste + shredded car tires
my daugher + me played logical brain twisters out of her fat mathematics book
#1 we have 100 tigers + 1 sheep. if a tiger eats the sheep, it will metamorphose into a sheep. if the tiger knows, it will survive, it will eat the sheep. WILL THE SHEEP SURVIVE? ... a hint? start small with 1 shep and only few tigers 🐅
#2 we have 12 equal looking balls, one of them is heavier or lighter than the others and we have an old fashioned scale with 2 cups. yoo can weight these balls 3x and have to say, which one is different + wheter it is heavier or lighter than the others => really difficult!
desert between the pacific ocean and the andes. due to a sand storm, we had to cancel the 1st day of our sightseeing tour at the paracas peninsula
paracas - swimming in the hot pacific ocean, boat tour into an ocean NP wih sea lions and many many birds (pelicans, cormorans, humbold pinguins, inca seagulls, gannets (tölpel), red head condors). it is a region where it almost never rains, maybe just every few years. why? it is due to the cold humbold stream in the ocean, the high andes mountains which block the rain from amazonas region and some winds (el nino?)
nazca / nasca lines starting 800 years B.C. in the desert earth. maria reiche museum (she was a german scientist from dresden and has discovered + protected the lines for decades). ancient up to 2,000 years old nasca graves with mumies, ancient water conduits (wasserleitungen) with small fish inside. the nasca culture was the successor of the paracas culture
nasca is in the ica province. the major source of income here are mining (Cu, Fe, Au, Ag), tourism (nasca city only?) and agriculture as it rains 3 months in a year, but only 1-2 hours per week (really?)
the people here in peru are generally smaller, thus the beds are often too short (1.80m) and the pissoirs too low 😀
now we're finally going to leave the coastal area, my dears ...
arequipa, 2,335m, the 1.5m inhabitants large unesco heritage city with beautiful buildings + restaurants. great rafting adventure at the chili river. nice post office experience when a local guy helped me to find the office even if it was just partially on his way. due to some minor holiday it was closed, but the security guard out there opened the door anyway + dropped my 2 cards into the post box => s.th. like that would not be possible in germany, you know?
interoceanica, the road between pacific + atlantic oceans is part of the new chinese silk road through peru, bolivia and brasil. there is also an one line railroad with almost no rail traffic next to it. maybe even more trucks than at the panamericana... pampa with dry + yellow grass lands often above 4,000m high with some cactus 🌵 + bushes + very few trees and many lamas + alpacas + vicunas + guanacos = the 4 camelios 🦙 south americas, where the last two are (still) wild. quite many lagunes with water birds like ducks, flamingos, black ibis, seagulls and also few rivers/creeks with or without water. some agriculture (lamas, alpacas, cattle, sheep, quinoa, oats + other grains and many different local potatoes types, vegetables, ...). btw, the same waste beside the road like at panamericana => any significant improvement is a question of culture + education, isnt it? 😏
the colca canyon which is double as deep as the grand canyon in arizona (usa) with condors 🦅 + eagles, falcons + nice short hiking tour + thermal springs bath + ice cold nights with frozen water puddles (pfützen) in the morning in our hotel at about 3,600m
the ugly city of puno (3,830m), at the huge titicaca lake (3,812m above sea level). the swimming yellow reed grass homes of the indigenous uros culture, 1 night at the amantani island with 4,000 inhabitants in the homes of quechua speaking culture and by huuuuge luck on that day with local communities celebration with music + dance + beer + fire. the 2nd day at the a little smaller taquile island with 2,000 inhabitants. here i was swimming in the titicaca lake for 3 or 4 minutes 😍. we have'd a hiking tour on both islands. the 300m hight meters covering sunset hiking tour to the pre-inca time pachatata (father earth) temple at 4,150m at the amantani island was more then difficult. there was the pachamama (mother earth) temple at the a little bit higher twin peak as well, my dears. btw, both islands are to 100% terrace fields agriculture land, there is no forest or any waste land left today. ok, they have few passion fruit + pine trees, bushes, flowers and eukalyptus trees recently imported from australia growing on mostly bald mountains
inca trail - inka trail - our 4 days and 42km long hiking adventure at the eastern, rainy + green side of the andes 🌴. well, that means many many many steps on stone stairs and many beautiful inca ruins with all their terraces, walls + remainings of buildings down the road. our highest point was the dead woman's pass at 4,215m. we've been a group of 11 tourists (besides my daughter & me there was a group of 7 funny and dance-crazy spanish people from barcelona at my daughter's age and 2 german guys 10 years younger than me) + 2 young peruvian guides + 1 cook + 13 porters. well, the porters have'd the lowest pay and at the same time the hardest job carrying all the tents + food + kitchen + some luggage for our fellow travellers who new in advance that there exist such an opportunity. it is sooooo sad that our society does not value hard work + fairness, but rather appreciates some special skills or special positions/roles, which of course change over centuries 😇 as there were for example no soccer players and rock stars in the inca culture. as a grop, we've spent wonderful 4 days in the beautiful andes mountains
machu picchu - the holy city of the incas in the jungle at 2,400m - unesco heritage, built by inca king pachakuteq around 1450 in geographically extremely difficult place. for the western world discovered by the american hiram bingham in 1911. even before it was visited (or all remaining treasures looted which were left after centuries?) by the german albert giesecke, one cusco native explorer who (besides others before him) left a graffiti on some wall what bingham found and deleted before making a picture 😆 .... anyway, the picture was found/published few years before 1911, so bingham accepted not to be the 1st 'modern times' guy out there, especially because thet cusco guy accidentally died in the river below the city ... what does it mean? mr. bingham and his team of scientists + archeologists found just some ceramics, (mumies?), stones, but no gold and silver except one golden forearm bracer besides the paths leading to/from the holy site which most likely lost some local or foreign looters
the unesco heritage city of cusco 3,399m, built on previous inca city - churches, churches, churches and stone paved squares
anything else? it is dark at 6 p.m., many tuk tuk taxis in the cities, many by earthquakes destroyed buildings, few quite easy to hike 6,000+ m high mountains, the highest point of our journey was the 4,910m high pass and viewpoint 'mirador de volcanos' in the colca canyon, tropical fruits + juices at the markets and restaurants, coca leaves all over the country, you can eat ceviche (sour made raw fish) + guinea pigs + alpacas, when you think you have to, traditional clothed people in the highlands + and allso the most souvenir sellers, quipus rope scripture of the incas, many of my mining investments have operations in peru (Cu, Au, Ag, ), ...
is peru a beautiful country? not really, if you asked me. all the way from lima to cusco there are mostly grey & brown lands + deserts, ugly dusty cities with overwhelming number of not finished or not painted houses (due to the frequent earthquakes?), dry + boring pampa yellow grasslands surrounded by naked mountains, plastic waste almost everywhere, ... of course, there are also beautiful spots down the road like the city of arequipa, colca canyon, lake titicaca, inca trail, machu picchu, ...
coming soon: pictures made by my 10 kind fellow co-travellers taken out of our whatsapp-photo-group ...
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
