Travelling to Peru (Part II)

Second part… it would be about accommodations and security. Here in Lima, there are a lot of backpacking hostels near Miraflores, here you will find EVERYTHING you need from food, clothes, to handcrafts and equipment for travel. Moreover, it's a safe place to stay and walk anytime, day or night. Downtown is not far from Miraflores, but is better to go in the morning or not to late in the afternoon. You will find several museums (larco, gold, inquisition), archeological inca sites (pachacamac, and a lot of "huacas" around lima), and many spanish term buildings and churches (historic center -downtown) If you like this kind of buildings, you can take an afternoon to visit them, insides are really amazing specially the cathedral. Always be aware of your camera or wallet even in you are in a restaurant, not because the city is VERY dangerous, but because is better to prevent just in case.

Tips for security all over Peru: (in my opinion) - took only necessary stuff for the day. left the rest at the hotel, of they have security boxes or something like that. - avoid showing your full wallet at street. (credit cards, for instance, but if you go to a restaurant is ok) - ask: in every place or city you will be, hostel or hotel will give useful information about where to be and don't. Also, ask in commerce or restaurants, or at street of the person looks really confiable. Even though I've been in Cusco 5 times, last time I appear in market and I didn't notice!!! because I was walking around without a map....

About accommodations.... In other cities, you should reserve in advance, most of them have little web sites or email. You should arrive and look for one if you want except (again in my experience): when you arrive late at night or, there is a special date in the city. Last time I went to Huancayo every hotel room was full because there were two special dates and Caminos del Inca rally, so I looked it in advance. Also you can call, calling to other city is not expensive less than 1 sol (1 sol right now is 3 soles = 1 dollar, 4 soles = 1 euro) Circuits: I think that there are 4 Basic zones to visit in Peru.

Zone 1 - To the north, beautiful beaches, and preincas cultures. Most important Cities: Piura, Chiclayo, Trujillo, Cajamarca (You can do the trip in one way)
Piura is near the border to Ecuador, best thing to do there, visit their beaches, in Piura and Tumbes (to the north). Mancora is the best for rest and visit, but you can visit more such as Colan (less commercial, almost private). Catacaos is a nice place to buy handcrafts. This zone is very hot all the year, there is a large desert (Sechura) and a natural reserve in Tumbes (Manglares). Chiclayo is famous because of Sipan Museum, near the city. Around Chiclayo, in Lambayeque, and Ferreñafe, there are several site museums, with native pre incas cultures, note that this cultures, are full of gold, that the incas inherit then. explanations about culture, exceptionally realistic handcraft, gold, and buildings are amazing. Food in this zone (Piura and Chiclayo) is abundant in mixes, with sea dishes and other different kind of animals (cabrito, duck) and native vegetables. Sometimes it would be spicy, you should ask. People in the north is gregarious, happy and easy going.

Trujillo has a beautiful group of colonial buildings, and Chan Chan city, which is made of adobe and Huanchaco beach. At this point all the cities are in the level of the sea. Cajamarca is about 2500 meters over the level of the sea. And culture is quite different from the coast. This is the agriculture and farm paradise. You should ask for a lot of products derived from milk. Exceptional landscapes in many places. It is famous mostly because here Incas and Spanish define the begin of the conquer by spanish to the incas.

Zone 2 (I think i'm taking to long!!! but hoping that if is useful for you) - Center: Huaraz: adventure here if you want to climb the andes some adventure sports and/or visit preincas site of Chavin. Also, you should visit strange places formed by 1970 earthquake (Yungay). Huancayo: Valle del Mantaro's capital. You should reach by train, the trip has beatiful landscapes for photos and pass through the tallest railroad of the world at Ticlio almost 4800 meters (amazing landscape at this tall...) Chanchamayo: (on the route to Huancayo, you should take a detour). This is a zone famous for the delicious coffee. Important Cities here. San Ramon, La Merced, Oxapampa, Pozuzo, Satipo, Villa Rica. They are full of waterfalls and rivers, full of river fish delicious. Every city you visit, you are more inside the jungle, but not the big jungle, a moderated one. Also is curious to mention that, when you arrive to Pozuzo, you should be like in Austria's Alpes. There are European colonies and they look like inmigrants but with weird accent!!!

Zone 3 - South of Lima: Better to say that, this was the zone of 2007's earthquake, and you should'n visit for instance downtown pisco, (or only if you want to do some social volunteering) but Pisco/Wine producers more to the south and Paracas Natural Reserve and Nazca lines are ok to visit. In fact, they are promoting tourism in order to have resource to reconstruct the affected buildings.

Zone 4: - Andes, high altitude places, mountains, Incas Empire. People here are more laconic, but always nice. As I wrote before Lima-Ayacucho-Andahuaylas-Abancay-Cusco-Puno route I did this June, was amazing!!! Ayacucho is a place full of churches, is not a big city but has 33 beautiful colonial churches.... Andahuaylas is a very commercial, not big city but its attractive landscape is importante to consider, for instance, Pacucha lake. Abancay is one of my favorites, only 10 km far from the center of the city there is the Ampay Natural Sanctuarium, if you walk the whole day you can reach a couple of lakes and drink natural water from the mountains!!! Cusco, I think it would be one of the highlights of your trip. Important note!!! If you want to do Inka Trail, reserve in advance, since now if possible. You could manage any other attractions there, but also reserve Macchu Picchu train tickets in advance if possible, only to be ok. I will not describe in detail because it will take to long, but city is full of mixed colonial/inca buildings, people from all over the world, nice places to eat,drink and dance. Beautiful museums. Puno, finally... is very high!!! is not to cold by day but it is by night. Be sure to find a place with adequate resources for cold. Lake Titicaca is... simple amazing.

Zone 4a: Arequipa
Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru. It is not very high, but enough for being aware of it. It has all the things you should find in other colonial cities, plus, a huge sleepy volcano, and exceptional architecture. Also near the city is Colca Valley, its Canyon one of the deepest and with sights as beautiful as others. Also you can see natural Condor habitat and eat several river and sea dishes. Other Special Places: - RainForest: Iquitos.... amazing city, there are also lodge really INSIDE the jungle. - Chachapoyas: between Cajamarca and Iquitos, most known because of Kuelap fortress pre inca buildings. - Huanuco and Tingo Maria National park.

I'd visited all the places i've listes except Chavin, (it is not very close to Huaraz), Kuelap, Manu and Colca Valley.... and many more!!! it is a neverending list!!!! Well hoping information would be helpful.... Keep my notes, and when you have time you should ask me more or maybe when you arrive, have some coffee or drink and explain you more about some places. Take note of the places you should reserve in advance, so you won't miss anything. Well let's keep in contact and good luck...
Natalie

Travelling to Peru (Part I)

Here is an email that I sent some weeks ago for a backpacker asking me for some advice... I think I will be helpful for other people. I you have some questions just ask here or to my profile at http://www.coushsurfing.com/

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Good news!! I've noticed that you'll be backpacking for 2 months here... it would be nice!!!!

First of all, if you want to travel, and have time, most destinations are reachable by bus. Please ask for the adequate companies for travel: there are many, but the best are Cruz del Sur and Ormeño, but there are several regional that are cheaper and safe also. It depends where you wanna go.

For the farthest locations, such as Rainforest, you should take a plane, especially to go to Iquitos (the only destination in Peru almost impossible to reach by bus), the biggest city in the jungle. You can reach Cusco by plane (1 hour) or bus 22 hours.

About prices, the most expensive bus ticket is around 30$ (Lima-Tumbes) most of them cost between 50 soles (15$ LIma-Huaraz) or 80 (Lima - Cajamarca) in the bus-bed service in the companies I'd mencioned before. Plane tickets are around 45$ to 70$ one way. It is a good practice to combine a long trip by bus and then go back to a big city by plane. I did it many times, for instance to go: Lima-Ayacucho-Andahuaylas-Abancay-Cusco-Puno (i did the route in June) or to Lima-Cajamarca-Chiclayo-Piura-Tumbes-Guayaquil-Montañita (The 2 last in Ecuador).

I strongly recommend you to pick up a map an locate the cities here!!! http://www.travour.com/travel-to-peru/tourist-map-of-peru.html This is the first part... then... what kind of tourism yo like the most? Natural, Archeological, Cities, Costumes… I have to go but then i will continue with the second part...

El hombre que calculaba

Permítanme volver algunos años y recordar este peculiar libro, que seguramente algunos conocerán. Estamos de acuerdo en que para muchas personas -incluyéndome en la mayoría de los casos- se nos antoja una forma más entretenida de leer un problema matemático. Yo la encontré hace muchos años en la biblioteca de mi casa, tal vez hace casi 20 -imaginen que era una lectora precoz para no imaginar mi edad!-, en el libro de Malba Tahan.

Ahora muchos años más tarde puedo apreciar el esfuerzo del autor por hacer algo interesante -y diferente- con relatos interrelacionados ambientados en el mundo musulmán y lo recuerdo gratamente sobre otros libros. En los últimos años, ante la pregunta: Favorite books? Lo recordé y decidí investigar si el autor había escrito más libros como éste.

Busqué primero el título traducido del libro , "The Man Who Calculated", y lo encontré como "The Man Who Counted", con la idea de tener más referencias (que normalmente las hay más en inglés que en español en estos casos). Luego encontré que el título original del libro era "O Homem que Calculava" en portugués, lo que me hizo voltear a mirar a mi gata con cara de extrañeza y me quedo mirando fijamente también. La curiosidad me mataba y seguí buscando, y me dí con la sorpresa que Malba Tahan era brasilero! y que se llamaba Júlio César de Mello Souza.

El profesor JC había sido un estudioso de la cultura árabe, y aunque nunca visitó esas tierra su conocimiento hizo sus narraciones realmente coherentes. Y regresando a lo que mencioné originalmente... me llevó a un mundo de matemáticas divertidas.. que era la motivación del Profesor sobre todas las cosas y habiéndolo llevado a cabo con su prolífica obra.

Léanla si no la han leído o hace muchos años que lo hicieron, no se la pueden perder.

Derechos de autor: Las fuentes están en Internet por doquier si visitan alguna página con los datos, seguro que los saqué de ahí. La imagen es de www.fnlij.org.br (Fundação Nacional do Livro Infantil e Juvenil)

El viaje de mis sueños. Sin LAN

A veces soñaba con ver como se oculta el sol en el Atlantico... claro ir a Brasil, creo que en mala epoca decidi ir pues no encontre compañia.... Claro, nada tan loco como la primera vez que vi un Sunset en Colan o en el Amazonas. La ruta imaginada para mi es ir a China e India. La hecha realidad, Europa. La verdadera, esta.

Hay muchas cosas que ver en nuestro pais. Para que les digo mas? chequeen la ruta y vean las fotos. Y si la hacen, cuentenme.

Finalmente.. la ruta soñada
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rataliegil/sets/72157600473111931/detail

Un video de las fotos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7ojdZkn46s

Ayacucho:
Pampa de la Quinua
Museo de sitio de Wari
Ciudad, Iglesias, mirador y monumentos.

Andahuaylas:
Ciudad, Laguna de Pacucha, casi en Sondor...
Talavera de la Reina (y su rica hidromiel)

Abancay:
Santuario de Ampay
Ciudad de Abancay,
Puente Pachachaca y Baños Termales.
Mirador

Cusco:
Andahuaylillas
San Carlos de Raqchi
La Raya (Cusco-Puno)

Puno:
Pukara, una iglesia linda y los toritos
Ciudad e Iglesias, Sillustani, Lago Titicaca, Isla de los Uros, Taquile
Buque Yavari, y Juli y sus Iglesias.

Cusco:
Rica Comida, mucho que tomar y ver.
Moray, Ollantaytambo y Aguas calientes.
Machu Picchu y Huayna Picchu.
Urubamba y Maras.
Iglesias de laciudad y Museos.
Sacsayhuaman

Luego de usar las estaciones de bus de dormitorio, comer en el mercado, perderse en un santuario natural, detener a los mosquitos con la mano, morir de frio en el altiplano,ver lo que nunca pense que veria... que mas puedo pedir?

Mascotas

Operación mensual para mejorar calidad de vida de Blacky, 18 años. Ah, no sé cuanto. Chequeo y vacunas de 2 perras, 4 gatos. Tampoco sé. Comida para dos perras y 4 gatos, más 2 gatos. Mmm, saca tu cálculo. Que en invierno me calienten los pies, me despierten moviendo la cola o que simplemente estén ahi, tener alguien con quien jugar. No tiene precio.

De vuelta

Semana santa en Lima... mmm ustedes dirán, que aburrido. Yo creo que si es santa. En la ciudad hay mucha paz. Nadie hace bulla y todo esta tranquilo. Puedes ir con libertad a donde quieras (siempre que esté abierto) y casi nadie te molestará. Manejar por la ciudad asi, y comer en el restaurante que siempre está mas lleno, con tranquilidad. Ir al cine y no hacer cola. Ir de compras sin que nadie te moleste. Ir al banco sin hacer cola -error-. Error. Las pocas horas que los bancos abren el fin de semana largo, están hechos un infierno. Siguiendo con la paz. Todos se fueron entonces nadie me responde los correos. Solo los que viven fuera y preguntan por qué el resto no les responde los correos (salvo que se llevaran la laptop de campamento).

Ayer unos pisco sours. Hoy unos cafes. Trabajando en mi proyecto para titularme. Ok. Mañana empieza el fin de semana de verdad.

En serio, antes me daba remordimiento quedarme en Lima. Hoy, -claro, más vieja y floja- he aprendido a disfrutarlo. Aparte, ir a algún lado fuera de la ciudad es de locos, es mejor ir de viaje cuando no hay nadie, asi que hay usar las vacaciones.

Voy bajando por el primer cafe y conversa.

Adios, buen fin de semana.

Hi

1st time here, let's have fun