BIENVENIDO!
- and Welcome to Peru!
The land of the Amazon, the Incas, the Andes and Lake Titicaca.
From the Amazon Rainforest, Lake Titicaca, the mysterious Inca ruins and
the ultimately inspiring Machu Picchu experience, a trip to Peru is a
journey into a magical dimension! This is not a country that needs selling
for anyone who has read anything on Peru or heard the tales of other
travellers. Peru is sublime.
See the lost Inca city of
Machu Picchu. With its air of mystery and awesome grandeur, It is the best
known and most spectacular archaeological site on the continent. And, of course, the amazing
Amazon
Rainforest is unbelievable - definitely one of the Top 10 things to do in your
lifetime.
ABOUT PERU: Peru is the third largest country in South
America and divides into three chief areas; the cavernous Andes, the
coastal region of the Atacama Desert, and the concentrated rainforests of
the Amazon. This is a country primed for adventure which softly summons
the quest seekers amongst us!
The Andes are still one of the world's most
unstable mountain ranges, with frequent earthquakes, landslides, and flash
floods. Despite such instability, the Andes are also the site of the most
fascinating pre-Columbian cities of South America-like the great city of
the clouds, Machu Picchu.
Also of great interest is Peru's narrow,
lowland coastal region, a northern extension of the Atacama Desert.
Although the Atacama is generally known as the most arid region on the
planet, the climate along Peru's shores is made cooler and less dry by La
Garuùa, a dense fog created by the collision of the frigid waters of the
Humboldt Current with the heated sands of the Atacama. Lima, Trujillo, and
Chiclayo, three of Peru's major population centres, are located along this
coastal desert.
Peru's third great region is the dense
forest that surrounds the headwaters of the Amazon beneath the
eastern slopes of the Andes. This part of the country is so inaccessible
that only the most adventurous and intrepid travelers should attempt to
penetrate its mysterious emerald depths. In fact, the region's capital of
Iquitos, a city of 400,000, is accessible only by air or by boat up the
Amazon.
EXCITING? JUST TRAVELING TO YOUR PROJECT IS AN ADVENTURE!
Ever dreamed of being on an adventure where you travel
to the other side of the world and venture into the deep jungle? Well,
on this project you’ll do just that.
The great journey begins when your plane descends,
breaking through the clouds and sweeping through the Andes into Cusco.
Cusco, located in southern Peru, is a city with some of the
most beautiful views in the world. Surrounded by the Andes, it’s known
as the "Archaeological Capital of the Americas". It is the oldest city
in the Western hemisphere and the cradle of the ancient Inca
Civilization.
You’ll be met on arrival and spend two nights in the city,
where you’ll have an orientation and induction day that will allow you
time to explore the city and purchase any additional equipment you might
need. It will also give you time to acclimatise yourself to your new
environment before embarking on the journey to your project. The Centre
is in the world's largest tropical rainforest and believed to contain
more than half of the world's species.
An Extraordinary Journey:
At daybreak the journey begins. However, this journey is far from
ordinary. The stories you've heard and films you’ve watched become
reality as your vehicle treks through the majestic Andes. For the first
hour the roads are relatively smooth and comfortable, but
after this, the fun and adventure begins!
Leaving Cusco, you head over the Andes, stopping at
Paucartambo for about an hour to learn about an Andean community. During
the first part of the journey you’ll travel through beautiful colonial
villages. Continuing, you’ll start climbing higher and higher into the
mountains, looking down on the wild rivers below that start to look more
like roads. Suddenly you're within touching distance of the clouds above
and it finally dawns on you that you’re actually here, traveling through
the longest and most famous mountain range in the world ... the
fantastic Andes!
At about 12,500 ft you enter the gateway
to the Amazon, before descending into the mist of the forest. As you
descend, you begin to notice that vegetation is becoming thicker,
greener and denser. Here you’ll rest and experience your first night in
the Amazon. This stop allows you the chance to explore and learn about
the local eco-system. You might even see the 'Cock of the Rock'
(National Bird of Peru).
The following morning you’ll continue by road through the
tropical lowland rainforest to a small village called Atalaya. At this
point you are now only about 2000ft above sea level, so everything feels
much warmer. Here the road ends and you’ll complete the final leg by
motorized canoe that navigates down the turbulent Alto Madre de Dios
River to the MLC, situated near the river banks.
After two days of traveling from Cusco, you’ve arrived at
your project site, where you'll learn, develop, experience and make a
difference to the future of the majestic Amazon rainforest.
Climate:
Peru's climate varies considerably by region, although January through
March tends everywhere to be the wet season. The coastal areas, which are quite hot and
humid during those months, are cooled during the rest of the year by La
Garuùa. The fog doesn't penetrate very far inland, however, and the
western side of the Andes are very clear, warm, and dry for the greater
part of the year. As one moves up into the mountains,
night-time temperatures become considerably colder. The eastern slope of
the Andes, like the Amazon basin, experiences very heavy rainfall during
the wet season, which extends from January all the way through April.
Language: Spanish is the official
language of Peru.
Currency: The local currency is the
Nuevo Sol.
.
Conservation
in the Amazon Forest:
This multi-activity project is an opportunity to live and work in the
greatest jungle in the world - the AMAZON!.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
OPTIONAL ADD-ONS
ABOUT
CUSCO (QOSQO)
Once you pass through the
shabby modern part of town near the airport, Cusco (or Qosqo, its official
Quechua spelling) is a magical little island of colonial architecture,
almost completely unspoiled by modern intrusions. More than that, many of
the colonial buildings are built on, over and around Inca walls, arches
and doorways, and many of the narrow streets in the centre of the town are
lined with original Inca stonework, with its typical inward slope and
perfect mortar-less joins, now serving as the foundations for more modern
dwellings or churches (Cusco was once the capital of the vast Inca empire
- one of the world's greatest planned societies - from the 11th Century to
its death in the early 16th Century).
Surrounding the city and its red
roofs, rise stark, beige-coloured hills and mountains. Its inhabitants are
mostly Quechua Indians, directly descended from the Incas, many dressed in
the colourful traditional dress of the area.
This colorful, picturesque town
has almost 300,000 residents and remains an important city. Although Qosqo
was heavily damaged by the Spaniards (whose architectural legacy is
obvious), the Inca city is still very much in evidence. Walls, doorways,
foundations, arches, and even decorative stonework are found throughout
the city, incorporated into newer structures like fragments of a broken
mosaic.
Qosqo also contains some more
extensive Inca ruins, including the Temples of the Sun and the Moon.
The city is also the
acclimatization point for the celebrated high altitude trek along the
trail of the Incas. Getting acclimatized is a very necessary step before
attempting the trek, but most people thoroughly enjoy the time they spend
here and the fascinating exploration of the region that you can do from
Cusco.
The main square, the Plaza de
Armas, is quite beautiful, despite the major repair and maintenance work
going on in its centre and around the edges. It is dominated by the early
17th Century baroque Cathedral, and the equally ornate Jesuit church on
one of its other sides. The other sides are lined with stores, tour agents
and houses, fronted by colonnaded walkways, many having ornately-carved
wooden balconies at first floor level.
From the square radiate narrow
streets and alleyways, many cobbled, leading to other smaller, more
peaceful, squares, and to numerous other colonial churches. There is
very little modern development to spoil the overall effect.
Quechua women in Cusco
THE
INCA TRAIL AND MACHU PICCHU
This 3-5 day journey is widely considered to be the most
spectacular trekking experience on the continent. Its route passes through
a 13,000-foot Andean pass beyond which lie some of the most astounding
artifacts of the Inca civilization. Most of these attractions, unlike the
majority of large pre- Columbian structures, lay completely undisturbed
for hundreds of years, and much of the trek's fascination is imparted by
the sensation of trekking into a region sealed off from time. Starting
with the sentry post of Runkuraqay, hikers pass through increasingly
splendid ruins, surrounded all the while by ice- capped mountains and
forests.
The trail ends at the astonishingly well-preserved sacred
city of Machu Picchu, having retraced the route by which the Incas
themselves ascended to this ceremonial centre.
Machu Picchu is probably the
best-known and most spectacular archeological site on the continent. Apart
from a few locals, no-one knew of the existence of the "Lost City of the
Incas" until Hiram Bingham stumbled on it almost by accident in 1911, and
then returned to clear the thick forest which had overgrown the ruins. It
was certainly a complete city, perched on a saddle connecting two high
mountains, with residential and agricultural sections and terracing around
the edges.
Gazing across the ruins, with its perfectly set stairways,
dwellings, fountains and still functional aqueducts, is a haunting
experience; so intact is the city that at times it seems its residents
have only recently walked away. How Machu Picchu's legecy ended is a great
mystery. It was once filled with priests, artisans, and the mamacunas, a
group of select virgins who dedicated their lives to the sun god. The
Spanish have no records of the city, and when it was rediscovered in 1911,
its walls overrun by the nearby jungle, only 173 skeletons were found on
the site.
Visitors generally
ramble among the stone staircases, terraces, temples, palaces, towers and
houses. There are several different styles of stonework exhibited,
although all beautifully executed and all without the aid of mortar.
Everyone eventually finds at the vantage point from where most of the
photos of the ruins are taken, with the backdrop of the dramatic peak of
Huayna Picchu (apparently not too difficult to climb). The ruins -
impressive though they are - almost pale into insignificance against the
spectacular mountain setting.
THE AMAZON
BASIN
Peru is the source of the Amazon Basin, which originates in the highlands of
the east, an area mostly inaccessible to humans. The region possesses
unmatched biological diversity. It is the turf of rare, magnificent, and
reclusive creatures such as the jaguar, Andean spectacled bear, giant otter,
and tapir. The bird population of the Amazon Basin, and of Peru for that
matter, is on a completely different level than the rest of the world. With
1,700 species of birds, the country is an unparalleled destination for
ornithologists and bird enthusiasts.
Peru has two distinct regions of
Amazonian rain forest, one in the north and one in the south. Iquitos,
situated at the Amazon headwaters the north, is the ideal point of entry for
northern Amazon, while the southern regions are best accessed from either
Cuzco or Puerto Maldonado.
Both the north and the south are
famously wealthy in rivers, cloud forests, wildlife, and indigenous peoples,
and for those seeking adventure in the Peruvian jungle, visits to each would
be ideal. In either place, bring a pair of binoculars to view the
extraordinary creatures of the rain forest.
National Park:
Covering more than 13,000 sq. km., this park is the largest and one of the
most remote of Peru's parks. It is home to an extraordinary abundance and
diversity of wildlife, including ocelots, jaguars, alligators, otters, and
about a thousand species of birds.
An excellent way to see the park is via its
principal waterway. The river passes through the park's entire northern
domain, skirting ox-bow lakes that are home to the rare giant otter.
Nazca and the Nazca
Lines:
Although
they have become better understood in recent years, the Nazca Lines are
still one of the world's most impressive ancient mysteries.
Located
about two hundred miles south of Lima and stretching for over thirty miles
along a flat, arid desert plateau, the Nazca lines consist of a series of
enormous and intricate drawings of birds, animals, and geometric figures.
The figures were scratched into the desert crust about two millenia ago, and
the region's extreme dryness has preserved them nearly intact.
The function
and meaning of the Nazca Lines remains unclear, though they seem to bear
some relation to astronomical cycles. Much of their celebrity status is a
result of Erich Von Daniken's Chariots of the Gods (1968), a popular pseudo-
scientific work which suggested that the plateau was a sort of
interplanetary airport. While Van Daniken's theory elicited only laughter
from the scientific community, it attracted thousands of fools to the lines.
Arriving on foot or by car or motorcycle to see lines that are visible only
from the air, they caused irreversible damage to the ancient marks and left
behind their own modern lines-a legacy that future scientists will no doubt
consider mysteriously senseless. Ground travel is now illegal in the area.
Flights over the Nazca lines are offered from Lima and from the town of
Nazca.
COLCA CANYON
To this day, there is no agreement as to whether Colca Canyon is the deepest
terrestrial chasm in the world, but no one challenges the fact that it is
one of nature's most awe-inspiring sights. Standing on the canyon's edge,
the great expanse of space overwhelms the senses, commanding respect for
nature's creative forces. Carved over eons by the Colca River, it stretches
about 60 kilometers from its eastern extremity at the town of Chivay to
Cabanaconde, in the west. By the time the river reaches Cabanaconde, it has
fallen about 1,300 meters in elevation.
Though the canyon received surprisingly little attention from western
explorers until this century, it was well-known even before the Incas. In
some places, stone-supported terraces built by the Incas and their
predecessors trickle down the canyon slopes, many of them still functional.
Small towns and villages sit atop the canyon banks on both sides, beginning
with Chivay, which is known for its hot springs and as the main portal for
exploring the chasm. Moving west on the canyon's southern edge, travellers
encounter the villages of Achoma and Maca, where local women wear intricate
and colourful mountain dresses identical to those of their ancestors. At the
nearby Mirador ruz del Condor, visitors are often blessed with visions of
rare, giant Andean condors as they ride the morning thermals rising from the
canyon floor.
Trekking in the Colca Canyon
The nine villages lining the edges of the canyon provide trekkers with a
host of connect-the-dots routes, allowing for a great deal of improvisation
in one's itinerary. There are numerous points of descent into the canyon,
though their accessibility often depends upon the amount of rainfall. When
travel ing in the canyon, it is essential that trekkers bring plenty of
water, as dehydration can occur rapidly here.
THE ATACAMA DESERT
This tapered area of lowland runs along the coast and hosts the three major
cities of Lima, Trujillo, and Chiclayo. The land is bone dry and the curious
desert landscape is made more evocative by the hovering thick fog resulting
from the impact of the freezing waters with the rise of the heated sands of
the Atacama.
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