Peru update



we arrived in lima and left as soon as possible because there's nothing really to see in lima, and lots of people get mugged. a german we met said that a shady character walked up beside him and started saying something about a pistol, and "bang bang", but he ignored the guy and walked towards a crowd of people. an israeli told us that the taxi in front of his was stopped by two people, they made the driver open the trunk, and they ran off down the street with their backpacks.

we have seen too much already to discuss in detail, so i´ll summarize - we saw a national park with beautiful sandstone cliffs, a volcanic island home to an unbelievable number of birds - their guano is harvested from the island for fertilizer and brings in many dollars for peru, we sandboarded and dune buggied on enormous sand dunes, got to see the difference between public and private hospitals when jordan passed out from sickness and dehydration and landed face first on a ceramic floor, and recently returned from a 3 day hike in the Colca Canyon which in many places is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. At the colca canyon we saw giant condors with 12` wingspans gliding on thermals, sometimes buzzing only a few feet over your head. And we still have over 2 weeks left.

the accomodations and food are cheap ($10/day total) and the people are friendly. transportation is also cheap - but the country really gets you when it comes to entry fees into major sites. (although admittedly these fees arent very high, just in relation to all other things).

i dont know when i'll be able to put out another update, but check out a small sampling of photos from so far by clicking the thumbnail above

now we're moving on to lake titicaca and then to bolivia before coming back for machu picchu and cuzco. i'll try to upload more photos later.

ciao amigos
Mike's photo adventure weblog: Peru update

Monday, August 14, 2006

Peru update



we arrived in lima and left as soon as possible because there's nothing really to see in lima, and lots of people get mugged. a german we met said that a shady character walked up beside him and started saying something about a pistol, and "bang bang", but he ignored the guy and walked towards a crowd of people. an israeli told us that the taxi in front of his was stopped by two people, they made the driver open the trunk, and they ran off down the street with their backpacks.

we have seen too much already to discuss in detail, so i´ll summarize - we saw a national park with beautiful sandstone cliffs, a volcanic island home to an unbelievable number of birds - their guano is harvested from the island for fertilizer and brings in many dollars for peru, we sandboarded and dune buggied on enormous sand dunes, got to see the difference between public and private hospitals when jordan passed out from sickness and dehydration and landed face first on a ceramic floor, and recently returned from a 3 day hike in the Colca Canyon which in many places is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. At the colca canyon we saw giant condors with 12` wingspans gliding on thermals, sometimes buzzing only a few feet over your head. And we still have over 2 weeks left.

the accomodations and food are cheap ($10/day total) and the people are friendly. transportation is also cheap - but the country really gets you when it comes to entry fees into major sites. (although admittedly these fees arent very high, just in relation to all other things).

i dont know when i'll be able to put out another update, but check out a small sampling of photos from so far by clicking the thumbnail above

now we're moving on to lake titicaca and then to bolivia before coming back for machu picchu and cuzco. i'll try to upload more photos later.

ciao amigos