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20 August, 2008 09:23:01

Peru: The grown-up gapper: unwashed romance, fleece blankets and alpaca sweaters

Cusco, where Ruth Holliday is learning Spanish

At her Spanish school in Cusco, many of the students are hooking up with fellow backpackers, but Ruth Holliday is not too keen - besides, her permanently pink, peeling skin and naff jumpers are perfect for avoiding romance.

It's amazing what an apple crumble can do for international relations. Sitting around the table with my host family in Cusco, Peru, I feel more at home than I'd ever expected. Volunteering to make an English pudding for dinner once a week has, you might say, been an excellent sweetener.

3 Comments

13 August, 2008 12:00:34

Personal Journey: 7 strangers bonding quickly to help Peru's kids

By Carolann Costa
The Inquirer

Writer Carolann Costa (right) with two schoolgirls and a fellow Globe Aware volunteer in Peru.

I usually don't travel alone, but during the lull that typically follows the holidays, I decided I needed to go on an adventure by myself. Surfing the Internet, I came across Globe Aware, an organization that combines volunteerism with excursions and other cultural experiences. Two months later, I was off to Peru.

Arriving in Cuzco, the gateway to Machu Picchu, I was joined by a motivational speaker, a writer, a video production VP, and two high school students. Our coordinator, Fiorella, was a local college student who became our guide, translator and friend. Looking back, it isn't difficult to understand how seven strangers could bond so quickly. We all had at least three things in common: the destination, a sense of adventure, and the desire to help.

2 Comments

23 July, 2008 12:30:38

Being There: Machu Picchu, Peru

By James Michael Dorsey
Special To The Sentinel

My wife and I had spent a wonderful day climbing through the ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru, and we were ready for a large dinner.

We were staying in a little hotel at the base of the mighty granite cliffs that house this ancient ruin, and right next to the raging Urumbamba river. This is in the thick of the Peruvian jungle, and it is rustic dining at its best.

14 Comments

16 July, 2008 12:00:06

Peru: You cannot travel on the path until you become the path itself

By Dennis Merritt Jones
Camarillo Acorn

"Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

As I departed the airplane and approached the terminal in Cusco, Peru, the faint echo of music wafted through the air. When I entered the terminal, something I never would have expected happened.

My eyes welled up with tears. In front of me stood a band of about 10 Peruvian musicians playing guitars, wooden flutes, mandolins, percussion and hand drums.

4 Comments

9 July, 2008 12:15:18

Peru - Cusco Tales: The Stone Wheel of Kachiqhata (Part 2)

By Richard Nisbet
Cusco Tales
Part 1

Washi didn’t show up until 1:45 and then he told us that he could only get two horses.

“Fine,” I said. “We can take turns on the horses. I’m sure I can walk some of the way as long as there’s a path.” I was thinking of last year’s hike on the other side of the river and the scrambling and how hard it was for me.

Washi goes for the horses, and I go for a walk in the direction of the quarries. “I’ll meet you somewhere before the bridge,” I tell him.

0 Comments

18 June, 2008 13:00:13

Peru - Cusco Tales: The Stone Wheel of Kachiqhata (Part 1)

By Richard Nisbet
Cusco Tales

In the short span of one century, we are told, the Incas created an empire that rivaled in extent and governance that of the Romans. They supposedly built 20,000 miles of roads over rugged, mountainous terrain. They built innumerable rope bridges spanning impossibly deep gorges. And they built stone walls of such magnitude and perfection that they defy our understanding, even in this day of such marvelous invention and construction.

They did all this without iron tools, without beasts of burden, without writing.... and they did it without the wheel.

“I know where there’s a stone wheel,” the guide said. “An Inca wheel.”

0 Comments

11 June, 2008 12:00:25

Peru: Introduction to Cusco Tales

By Richard Nisbet
Cusco Tales

An introduction to mostly true stories by a gringo who has had an ongoing love affair with the town for 28 years. Laced throughout with interesting and little-known tidbits of Inca history, as well as views of contemporary and ancient Cusco culture.

Cusco is not just a town; it is a place of God and man-made beauty. It is a crossroads, an experience. It is even a time machine of sorts. If you don’t know Cusco, you’re missing something. There’s no other place like it.

Ask anyone who’s been there. It is the oldest inhabited city in the Western Hemisphere. They now call it “The archaeological capital of America.” In Inca times they called Cusco “The Navel of the World.”

5 Comments

21 May, 2008 11:45:58

Paying homage to the sun in Peru

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The emperor addresses his people in triumph as Inti Raymi draws to an end.

© JEREMY FERGUSON PHOTO

Inti Raymi - the annual Festival of the Sun - is a spectacular way of saying Happy New Year

Jeremy Ferguson
Special to the Star

Every June 24, Peru's pre-Columbian past springs to life for Inti Raymi, Inca Festival of the Sun. It's the most spectacular historical pageant in South America. Ask Bill Gates or actress Cameron Diaz, who were among last year's throng of international guests.

Inti Raymi recreates the celebration of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, the beginning of the Sun God's new cycle: Happy Inca New Year.

1 Comments

7 May, 2008 12:00:31

Is it OK to visit Machu Picchu?

The Guardian
By Rory Carroll

The headlines from Peru look bleak. Tourist hordes overwhelming Inca sites. Huge new hotels endangering Machu Picchu. A wonder of the world cracking at the seams.

The news is not as bad as it looks. Globalisation has not scalped another victim, not yet anyway, and concealed in these tidings of woe are reasons to cheer.

6 Comments

23 April, 2008 07:00:01

Peru: Inca Trail? Not this summer

Gadling.com
By Jeremy Kressmann

World travelers just can't get enough of Peru's famous Inca Trail. But has the Inca Trail had enough of them? It may come as surprise to anyone still planning summer travel to Peru, but the world-famous path to Machu Picchu is completely sold out for the 2008 summer travel season, with the next available opening in September 2008.

As veteran Peru trekkers might know, the Peruvian government began imposing restrictions in 2005 on the number of hikers who could take the path each day to no more than 500.