ancient civilizations from 2000BC up to the Inca era (1200-1400 AD).
We were fortunate to travel with Alex, a professional guide we had met on our previous trip, along with two great drivers and very comfortable Hyundai mini-bus. What a great way to travel!!! The traffic was crazy with not much recognition given to basic things like traffic lights and turning lanes! Our drivers were very skilled and we always felt very safe with them. Alex had done such careful and detailed planning for our trip that we always felt very safe and well-looked after in spite of little details such as crazy traffic!
We had one Saturday night taxi ride in Lima that was a bit edgy...my journal reports: "...the taxi made daring maneuvers when crossing on-coming streams of cars while making a left-hand turn---oh, did I forget to say there are no left-turn traffic signals?---and there was extreme crowding from all sides creating more lanes of traffic than the street was designed to accommodate. All together the taxi ride was something to recall. It seemed somewhat dangerous but we (and the taxi) escaped unharmed. The driver was cheery, very skillful, and had nice Peruvian music in his car!"
We also enjoyed four short commercial air flights to reach the more remote parts of Peru. Lan Peru
air always serves snacks on every flight, even if it is only a thirty minute flight. Each passenger
receives a small box of goodies---on two flights we received bags of "KRAPS"! Imagine our surprise
when we bravely tore open the bags and discovered crackers much like Ritz.
We spent most of our visit on the west coast of Peru, which is desert. It is the northern extension of the Atacama Desert, the driest place in the world. The beaches were beautiful though the sand is constantly blowing and moving so we felt fairly gritty most of the time. [Travel hint for your file: do
not take your basic black shoes, slacks and hand-bag to a desert. I looked dusty the entire trip!]
Here we go...
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| Alex (guide), Marie, & Penny at the Pacific Beach |
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| Marie, Jony (driver) & Penny |
The interesting thing about the ruins we saw is that most have been discovered since 1980.
Marie & Luis (guide) hiking out to the pyramid ruin
at Tecume' (too-ka-may)
Sand-buried pyramid, not yet excavated
Marie and I with the lunch ladies at Tecume'.
Drinking chicha (corn liquor-sort of Peru moonshine)
at Tecume',out of little gourd cups. We only had
a few tastes (rather fiery! ) but I look
like I had enjoyed a lot!
As we worked our way southward along the coast, driving on the Pan American highway, we were interested to see large fields of sugar cane, lentils, avocados, and rice, all irrigated with water from several of 41 rivers which run from the Andes to coastal Peru, slicing the desert coastline into neat sections of desert. Because this is sandy desert soil (yep---I really had dusty shoes here!) many areas have net "sand fences" to keep sand off the highway and out of the irrigated fields. (Much like US prairie snow fences.)
When sugar cane is mature, it is burned, standing in the field, to remove the foliage. We stopped to see where men were cutting the burned canes with great machetes. It is then loaded on to huge trucks with front-end loaders. It was good to see that some of the work is now done by machine. Three crops of cane are harvested from a planting. Then re-seeding is necessary.
Sugar cane field
Loading the cut cane for transport
Dashing out of the cane field; ungathered cut cane behind me
Alex had arranged a nice treat for us: to stay overnight in a very nice hotel on the beach at Huanchaco, a resort city just south of the sugarcane area. We could see surfers and great rollers from our hotel porch and the seafood promised to be very fresh!
Our lovely hotel on the beach at Huanchaco
Fishing boats made from tortura reeds
Standard transport mode most everywhere; we
finally traveled in one from the local market
to our hotel in Chivay (about 35 cents!).
One thing Marie and I always like to do in other countries is visit the markets and grocery stores (if they have them). In Peru we had several chances:
Ducks--note their big feet!
One variety of Peruvian corn; this is served often.
Note it's huge, starchy kernels.
Sharks, for the very popular ceviche
Diced shark, ready for ceviche. The
butchers had the sharpest knives I've ever seen.
Baby goat (cabrito) for dinner?
Yucca root; one of the new foods I ate on this
trip: boiled, fried, and batter-coated
Guanavana fruit (gwan-av'-a-na), a
strange-looking fruit which makes a delicious
sort of pina-colada-tasting drink.
This part of the market is known as "the witches' market."
Here is where you buy all your potions---to fall in
love, or to heal your fevers, or ???? I bought
a doll that had come from the Amazon Basin for
my kitchen witch!
Considering I haven't posted anything for four months, I believe I'll pause here. More to be
posted in the next day or two. Coming: Peru's Galapagos, Penny and Marie sand-duning in
a buggy, the Nazca (Nasca in Peru) Lines, and topping out at 16,000 feet in the Andes!
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