10 recently published experiences http://www.hereorthere.com/countries/peru en-us Trujillo in the North of Peru isn’t an obvious choice for travellers. It lacks the big tourist attractions that draw people to other parts of the country. However, if you have the chance to check out the city and its surrounding towns you’ll be rewarded. I had the pleasure of living there for a couple of months and grew to love its busy streets, beachy towns and the no nonsense people of this often overlooked part of Peru. Trujillo, Peru Andy Tue, 29 Jan 2008 22:55:34 +0000 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/andy/experience/1272 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/1272 For most travellers the Southern City of Arequipa serves as a quick stop for a day or two or as a base for trekking in the spectacular Colca Canyon. I went back to Arequipa to take on a different challenge that had been in my mind since my previous visit a few months earlier. Looming over the city is the beautiful “El Misti” a volcano clocking in at 5,822 km. Although that sounds pretty steep, Arequipa is a high altitude city and I had been told it was a climb that even inexperienced climbers like myself could have a good crack at Arequipa, Peru Andy Mon, 21 Jan 2008 20:32:21 +0000 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/andy/experience/1256 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/1256 On to Nazca, again by coach. A strange place - covered in the dry dust of the desert and virtually deserted when we were there. The town itself offers little other than the lines as far as we knew, so we found ourselves quite glad that we had not arranged to stay overnight. The lines were only discovered in 1939 and I assume the local people saw very few visitors from anywhere at all before that. Now 60% of the population survive on them. The other 40% is made up of agriculture and mining for quartz and gold. We visited a gold refinery. It was like stepping into the 17th Century. There were young boys and girls in their teens rocking back and forth on huge semi circular stones that were crushing rocks in a pool of water. Nazca, Peru DanaPalamara Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:00:31 +0000 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/danapalamara/experience/1109 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/1109 It’s day three in Colca Canyon and we are told that we have to leave at 3am for the last ascent. After the two cases of altitude sickness and one case of collapse from exhaustion in our group the day before the guide advises us that we should get mules. We decide to get one for our bags and another to share between the group when things get too much. Ingrid and I have just about recovered from the day before's trek, but every one of my toes has a huge blister on it. I curse my boots - they are proper hiking boots and cost me a fortune. Why am I in so much pain? Boosted from my Hurculean efforts the day before, I decide that no matter what, I'm going to finish this treck on foot - after all it's freezing, so at least we won't have to cope with the heat like yesterday. Colca canyon, peru, Peru DanaPalamara Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:08:29 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/danapalamara/experience/1080 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/1080 Not far from Arequipa is the Colca Canyon - Canyon of tombs. It's the second deepest canyon in the world at 3191m. The deepest is the neighbouring canyon called Cotahausi which is 163m deeper. We decide to go on a three day trek. It is here that I discover that I really cannot cope with altitude. We had been sluggish ever since we hit Arequipa, but this was a joke. It's day two of the trek and we are faced with a 3 hour ascent. We spent the whole of the first day trekking all the way down to the bottom and now we were on our way back up again. And when I say ascent, I mean ascent. No nice, easy slopes here. I am having to put my foot as high as my stomach to lift myself up. After about half an hour I realise that I can no longer breathe. No matter how hard I try, I simply cannot get my lungs to fill with air. I start to feel dizzy and sick. I am desperately trying to keep up with the group, but even putting one foot in front of the other is making me gasp and making my thigh mu... Colca canyon, peru, Peru DanaPalamara Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:05:13 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/danapalamara/experience/1075 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/1075 I am sitting in a wooden hut on stilts in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. The lodge is comfortable. There is a small sleeping area and a bathroom with cold shower and a balcony area outside which looks out to the river. There is a hammock on the balcony, but it rarely gets used because it is a sticky 42 degrees during the day and at night there is an onslaught of a million different types of biting bugs and mosquitoes the size of my hand. I have been virtually eaten alive by all sorts of creatures. Hopefully I'll build up an immunity to the itching soon. Warning - 100% Deet does not make a blind bit of difference. Every bit of flesh, exposed or otherwise WILL be eaten. Last night the little XXXXs bit through my jeans! Tight layers worn with baggy clothing on top helps. The only problem is that sweat is itchy too - especially by the gallon. To get here we took a boat from Iquitos - the world's largest city that cannot be reached by road. We travelled up the Rio Itaya which... Iquitos, Peru DanaPalamara Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:36:39 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/danapalamara/experience/1047 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/1047 Most people that I’ve spoken to about Peru don’t really rate Lima. It’s ugly, it’s boring, it’s not traditional enough, are the main complaints I’ve heard – it’s frequently unfavourably compared to Cusco. I’m always kind of surprised by this as I had a great time there. Admittedly Lima has faults, as with many capital cities: it’s a bit of an urban sprawl, there is a lot of poverty and it doesn’t have the sense of cohesion enjoyed by smaller, older cities such as Cusco. But if you’re prepared to delve into the nooks and crannies of this massive city, then you can find plenty to admire. Lima, Peru kath_visits Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:26:34 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kath_visits/experience/1022 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/1022 ‘Not the Galapágos, but similar’ - this was how a guy I met in Paracas explained the Ballestas Islands to me. If they were anything like the Galápagos, which I’d visited a few years previously, then I was sold. So we booked onto a boat trip, the only way to see these protected islands, as tourists are not allowed to disembark there for conservation reasons. The islands are not visible from the shore, so we climbed into the panga without any real sense of where we were heading, excited by the guide’s promise that we were going to enjoy our trip. We soon were zooming out of the harbour into the open sea, overtaking many local fishermen on the way (including one guy who was pulling in a very large red octopus as we passed him!). Paracas, Peru kath_visits Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:25:52 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kath_visits/experience/1025 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/1025 All day we had driven the Panamerican Highway, seeing nothing but desert, and the view from the bus window, though beautiful in its way, looked no different. But suddenly our guide announced ‘we’re here!’. Here was where? Just outside Nazca, home of the famous Nazca lines, drawings inscribed in the desert by a Pre-Incan tribe, the Nazca. But still I could see nothing – no wonder these drawings had gone undiscovered until the 1920s, when commercial jets began to fly over this area. The ground in front of me seemed flat and featureless. Nazca, Peru kath_visits Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:45:40 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kath_visits/experience/974 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/974 Puerto Maldonado was a bit of a one horse town, I sensed as we got off the plane. The airport was about the size of my old school hall and the town itself looked run-down. Still we would be staying in an eco-lodge about an hour away from Puerto Maldonado, down the Madre de Dios river, a major tributary of the Amazon. We were picked up at the airport by a guide from the Reserva Amazonica, then taken to a little motorboat, leaving most of our stuff behind in a lockup. No luxuries here, but I was looking forward to making this trip – I had wanted to visit the Amazon since I was a kid reading D.K. books about wildife. Puerto Maldonado, Peru kath_visits Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:52:01 +0100 http://www.hereorthere.com/members/kath_visits/experience/740 http://www.hereorthere.com/experiences/740