Traipsing around with Mom and Sue

This marks my official last blog about Peru, seeing as how I have been in Mexico for a day, but it will be a good one! For the past two weeks I was so fortunate to have my mom and our friend Susan come down to Peru to be tourists with me and lumber along the "gringo trail." Full of beautiful sights, amazing hotels and food, and only a few mishaps, the trip was a great way to wrap up my five month Peruvian adventure. We started out in Cusco, where we took in the old stone foundations, including those at the Qoricancha/Santo Domingo temple: the Qoricancha temple was one of the most sacred in the Inca Empire and for that reason the Spaniards tore down a great deal of it and built a church on top. With some sense of justice, the Santo Domingo temple has been seriously damaged over the years with earthquakes, while the remaining Incan stone structures have stood their ground.

We also hiked up from Cuzco to the site of Sacsayhuaman, an enormous stone site that is impressive even though it only contains 30% of the original stones (the other 70%) were carted off by the conquistadores to build in Cuzco. The sheer size of the stones is impressive - it must have been so difficult to transport them (some weigh over 30 tons).

When my mom and Suzan headed up to Machu Picchu I decided to stay behind and take advantage of the chance to visit Moray, where there are many multi-terraced circles which were used by the Incans/Quechua people to experiment with microclimates and crop varieties. Amazingly, each terrace has its own microclimate, allowing farmers to determine which varieties of potato, corn, quinoa, etc. are better suited for particular climates and not others. Although the full site has not yet been restored, the parts that are in good shape are still used by local people to cultivate every year, which I think is a great example of how such old technology can be so useful today. I went after the harvest, so everything is dry, but apparently it's very lush and green during the rainy season.

On our last day in Cuzco we boarded a bus with a tour of the "Sacred Valley" around Cuzco, which is a magical place of snowcapped mountains ringing lush fields and meandering rivers. Sprinkled throughout the landscape are small towns with Incan archaeological sites and traditional markets, making for a great day trip.

The view from Ollantaytambo

Mom and I in Pisaq

Then it was off to the "white city" of Arequipa, so-named for the white volcanic rock which is the basis of many of the buildings. Although it's Peru's second-largest city, it has a very peaceful atmosphere and there is no end to the beautiful colonial-era buildings that have been carefully restored and which can be visited (including our amazing hotel, Casa de Melgar)

Santa Catalina Convent

Casa de Melgar

We spent a lot of time exploring museums, churches and monasteries and relaxing with good coffee before we headed out on a two-day trip through the Colca Canyon.

We also bought some twin hats from the area

The Colca Canyon lies outside of Arequipa and is twice as deep as the Grand Canyon with a population dedicated to agriculture and - now - tourism. Again, the dry season means that everything is brown and burnt looking, but it was still beautiful.

The canyon is home to lots of native wildlife as well, particularly vicunas, llamas, alpacas, and condors. On our second day we were able to see at least 12 condors fly around the canyon walls. Although in the picture it's difficult to appreciate their size in this photo, they have a wingspan of about 6 feet!

From Arequipa it was off up the coast of Peru, stopping at Nazca where we were fortunately able to fly! (many people were having their flights cancelled due to long delays). The lines were as stunning in real life as I had imagined after reading about them and seeing pictures. Although there is no real "answer" as to why the Nazca people drew these enormous figures in the desert, I was awed by art on such a grand canvas and I will go home with less questions about their source and cause, and more appreciation for the beauty that was created in the middle of a barren land.

Getting into our little plane (with fear in our bellies)

The hummingbird (look closely)

In Ica, my mom and I went on a tour of the local wineries, where we sampled the wares (the sweet wines were the best, but just in small quantities)

before suiting up for a trip through the huge sand dunes of the area. Although we thought we were only going on a dune buggy ride, we ended up sandboarding as well (on our bellies) - my mom was so brave!

It was so beautiful to be out in the middle of the sand with nothing in sight except for the buggy (which was unfortunately loud and smelly) and the sun setting over the dunes.

We then visited the Islas Ballestas, which are a set of small islands that create an ideal shelter for marine and bird life, including dolphins, sea lions, and penguins (my favourite). There was another inexplicable image drawn there, of which many theories abound but none have been proven.

"El Candelabro"

And then we finished up the trip in Lima, with luxurious dinners, last-minute shopping, and...paragliding! Again, my mom is just something else (that's her up there in the big yellow paraglider).

Thanks Mom and Sue for a great trip!