Beautiful Peru !

Our landing point in Peru was Lima. Just like São Paulo, Lima is a big city that needs to be lived in to be appreciated. At first, the city, typically South American, seems messy, full of unfinished buildings, with earthy roads, broken pavements and old advertising wall paintings half erased by the weather.
Amongst the brick constructions and the houses with washed out paint, appears an old building, a church or old mansion, once grand and now forgotten, covered with tags and advertising posters. There is a massive amount of traffic seemingly disorganised: everyone create his own lane, blocks off the neighbour or monopolise the entire lane leaving no choice to the other drivers but to drive on the opposite lane.
Then at the turn of a corner, we are on a modern avenue alongside the beach and the cliffs and we can see in the distance, modern glass buildings, immaculate avenues, smart restaurants and magnificent old buildings fully restored.
In lima, we will visit the historic centre, it’s Plaza de Armas and its old colourful buildings with balconies, once designed for rich families to be at the front row for the carnivals. The cathedral was one of the best we have ever seen with amazing mosaic on the thumb of F. Pizarro and the various little chapels decorated in very eclectic yet always exuberant style.
What amused us in the old Lima was to find entire areas of the same shops. In one area we counted over 40 opticians, next to one another, the following area was full of printing companies…
We visited the area of Barranco, a pretty colourful area where hippies and now artists have found their base. The bridge of Sight was closed being refurbished, sadly, but we walked around and found the best view of the sea and cliffs.
In Lima we will discover delicious dishes such as Ceviche, a typical dish of raw seafood marinated in garlic, lime and lemon and served with sliced onion and sweet potatoes and causa a stuffed potato dish. Yummy!
Cusco
During the flight to Cusco, we met Kroshaw and his daughter. It is funny how chance can make you meet people. So many common points and we connect straight away: a keen photographer, a cyclist, a fond traveller we exchange experience and share dreams and reading lists. A more mature family, they are an inspiration, daughter entering med school, both of them on a special trip to run the Inca trail marathon together! Really?

Landing is Cusco is tough: it is hot and at 3350 m of altitude, headache and nausea are affecting the boys and Ranj. Luckily, we had planned enough time to adjust and once settled in our cosy little hotel, the Amaru II hostal, we are ready to combat the altitude sickness with Mate de Coca (coca tea) and coca leaves made available to drink and chew. It works !!! After a few hours of rest, we are back on our feet, ready to meet with Ginette who has also just got here.

Cusco is beautiful. A small old Inka city famously known to be the first step to Machu Picchu. Although it is very touristy, this little town is full of history, culture and traditions with huge cathedrals, churches, old ruins of temples remaining from the Inca times and locals dressed in full peruvian gear with multilayers colourful dresses, tall black hats, white shirts embroidered with colourful flowers and patterns , wrapped in alpaca shawls. This is surreal. I had seen these traditional costumes but would have never thought that this would still be, nowadays, the way to dress for many. For show, some women and children wander the street with their baby lama or alpaca in their arm, begging for you to photograph them in exchange for a peruvian sol. The animals can be seen wandering freely amongst the ruins of the old city of Sacksayhuaman, just above Cusco.
Ranj did not enjoy the very touristy aspect of the town, which did not bother me.
For 4 days, we enjoyed walking in the city’s small and steep cobbled streets although it was very hard work as we were gasping for air after a few steps.
By chance, we caught one of the major celebration performed in this town: the celebration of the Pacha Mama or Mother Earth. On our first evening, August 1st (and a celebration that would take place every week of August), we witnessed the incredibly strong believes that Quechuan people – the native from the area – still have towards Nature. On the grounds of the remains of the old Inca Temple Koricancha, this beautiful ritual consisted in having the 5 representative of tribes praying and thanking Mother Earth for the harvest, the food, and the good health that She provides to the people and the children. To the beat of massive peruvian drums and the smell of burnt incense designed at cleansing the air, the group kneeled, sang, prayed to the stars, embraced and burnt coca leaves (symbol of wishes) and invited the crowd to share their wishes to Mother Earth until the dark of the night. Participating to such an event was very special to us and made us appreciate the reality of these believes.
Other days, we visited Santo Domingo church, on the ruins of Koricancha temple, where we witness the ingenuity of the inca and their amazing skills and believes:
the perfection of their constructions: each stone perfectly cut to fit the other to the millimetre, with no use of mortar but the use of copper links to stabilise each block; the perfection of the finishings
the symbols of their culture: 3 worlds, 3 animals: condor for the air, puma for the earth, snake for the underground world
constant parity between the elements similar to ying and yang
importance of the astrology and it’s integration in the building’s structure
We witnessed the importance of the Spanish influence on the architecture and it’s impact on the local life and believes.

In Cusco, we tried Cuy (Guinea pig)! It came as a whole thing! Yak!!! We were not too inspired and did not really enjoy it! We also had lots of chicken soups, quinoa soups, a few of the 5000 kind of potatoes, white corn, chicha morada (a delicious juice made from black corn), all specialities from the area. We also tried pisco sour (a cocktail based on the typical South American alcohol Pisco), which Ranj took a real liking to until he realised it was source of his ‘altitude sickness’! -until we remember what happened when you drink alcohol in high altitude…
The boys also discovered that excellent organic cocoa beams grow near Machu Picchu and whilst visiting the Cusco’s Coco Museum, they made their own delicious chocolates from beam to bar!

The city is surrounded by a vast number of incredible ruins such as the site of Sacksayhuaman, where 200tones boulders remain to show part of the walls of the massive temple where the Incas fought their final battles against the Spanish. Ollyamtambo and Pisac are other amazing sites where the Incas built a clever system of terraces to experiment with new crops before sending them to the valleys for exploitation. The buildings on site would be used for accomodation and religious purpose for the priests, astrologists and engineers whilst other magnificent construction would be used for storage purpose only.
Each touristic site was the base for an artisanal market, where all kind of artefact could be found from Mayan calendar stone to wine pipe and flutes as well as peruvian hats, ponchos, alpaca wool clothing, dream catchers, etc. Despite the chaos and the need to haggle for everything, the markets are beautiful, full of buzz and so colourful! The little ones run around the stalls and play with made chief props.
Our visits also included that of an Alpaca factory where they were taught us how to recognise the quality of the Alpaca and how to create natural dyes from a bacteria living on the palm cacti. Once mixed with different minerals, the white bacteria powder turns different shades of reds, pinks, purple, yellows, orange. Other natural herbs and plants are used to produce the blues and greens. Stunning colours!

Our ‘big’ trek to Machu Picchu started at 6am on Thursday 7th August. After staying the night in a basic but decent hostal in the village of Ollyamtanbo, we met our guide Armando at the train station at 6am where we boarded the elegant Peru Rail train towards Machu Picchu. We got down at km 104, a stop in the middle of the peruvian jungle, not even a train station, where there was a metal gate leading to a wobbly wooden bridge across the river. Here was the start of the 12 kms trek. Access to the National Park of Macchu Picchu is strictly regimented and only 200 people are allowed to trek the Inca trail every day, which requires a pass that needs to be booked 6 months in advance. We had done our homework and booked our pass. At the check point however, the kids passports did not match the booking records and the very strict agents in the little wooden cabin at the entrance of the park just wouldn’t have it, the kids couldn’t get through! At the same time, it started to pour down with rain, the day seemed to be doomed!
Armando, very calm, addressed the keepers with the upmost respect and after pleading with them to consider other kind of paperwork as a proof of ID, the officials accepted to stamp our passes. And off we went!
Although we started off under the rain, the downpour only lasted a short while and we were soon undressing again.
The landscape was stunning: as we progressed through the valley, we went from the low to high jungle, from wild lush green jungle to more arid alpine looking vegetation and back to bushy jungle again. We saw wild orchids, numerous kind of cacti (Armando even picked some that we chew as they contain as many vitamins as dozen oranges), massive bamboo bushes, paths covered with vines, humming birds…Along our way, we climbed hundreds of stone steps, worn over time by pilgrims and tourists, in narrow staircases often on the edge of a great drop. Loaded with our rucksacks, we walked the 11kms trek stopping for snacks and picnic. We took our picnic after the longest climb. A well deserve break for the legs! Has we rested, we saw a marathon runner pass our station and thought of our new friends. And out of the blue, here they came! Sharkaw came first, followed by his daughter. In their effort, they did not recognise me and went pass. A few minutes later, he was back, waiving and embracing us! What an amazing coincidence! The magic of travels!

We came across ruins of Inca villages with the typical terraces, the carved bed-stones used as sacrifice bench, double door frame for the sacred rooms, recessed openings in the wall where decorative items or offering would have been displayed. Some of the sites architecture was so complex that the Incas had built a series of “baths”, lined one after the other on the hill where the priest would follow a purification process, with irrigation systems bringing water down from the glaziers kilometres away.

We reach the Sun Gate at 1.30pm after a last super steep climb of 80 steps that we had to tackle on our fours! But right at the end of this climb, the Sun Gate was awaiting and right after that, the most amazing sight: Machu Picchu bathed in sun rays peeping through the clouds! We stayed at the ” Puerta del Sol’ for a while, tired but pleased of our achievement and delighted to just be able to sit and enjoy the sight.

As we walked down to Machu Picchu, the ever changing views became more and more dramatic as the clouds were in and out of the valley. As we drew closer, I became very emotional, whether it was because of the stunning views, because of the fact that I had dreamt of coming to this place for so long or because it had been a long tiring walk, tears just rolled on my cheeks and I sobbed quietly. Ranj and the boys were very moved to see me so emotional. And as if the Gods heard my thanks, a few rain drops started to come down and a massive double rainbow appeared in the valley just behind the ruins. Absolutely amazing! We were in awe!

Out of everything we had done during this trip, out of al the amazing landscapes we had admired, this was for me the penultimate for it was not only thee realisation of an old dream, indeed, but also because everything that day just came together in such a way that it all seems too special to just be coincidence.

The last day of our Machu Picchu adventure, we woke up at 4.20 am and went up to the site by bus, along side hundreds of other people. There we met Gigi and continued the visit of the site. Armando took us to the bottom part of the ruins, thus cleverly avoiding the tourist flow. It the quietness of the ruins, we encountered a chinchilla sat amongst the square stones. Once again we witnessed the incredible architectural skills of the Incas, the sophisticated constructions, the baths, the sacrifice stones, the roof structures. We observed how the Incas cut the stone with wooden blocks and transported the massive boulders to the site with stone rollers. We were intrigued by the number of natural stones used as a reference to the surrounding mountains or representing the venerated animals such as Puma, Snake and Condor.
We had heard of a stone with special powers. Oddly, as we put our hands on the Hintihuatana stone, our hands felt hot first then prickly. Some people report feeling energised by it. I didn’t feel any particular burst of energy but more a kind of blessing, what ever that could mean.
That day was very wet, it rained a lot and the mist was dense. We managed to get dramatical views of Wanapicchu, the tall skinny mountain next to Macchu Pitchu and were pleased not to have purchased the tickets to go up. Although the experience would have been great, we heard that the path was very steep and slippery and rather dangerous especially for children.

We therefore slowly headed down the mountain by bus after queuing for 45 mn (and being rudely overtaken by a Peruvian school group whose leaders clearly thought that being a native had some privileges).
We took our elegant Peruvian Rail train back to Cusco that night and booked ourselves into the cosy Amaru II Hostel for a short night. Before that we took time to go for a delicious chicken soup at Wanapacha.

Cusco to Puno
There are many ways to do the trip Cusco – Puno and one of the option was the luxurious Andes Explorer, a magnificent train with luxurious onboard services, riding through the scenic Andean valley. We chose the tourist bus! Time wise the 2 were similar: it would take us a 10 hours journey. The cost of the bus was a fraction of the train however and this way would enable us to visit a few sights on the way. And it was a great choice. Although we could have done with the unbroken long journey to catch up with sleep from the 3 previous nights, the stops were well worth it.
We visited 2 magnificent Chapels built by the Jesuite when the Church sent them to South America to convert the populations. Both have been restored but still show some of the original murals. The walls are entirely covered with paintings, most of them very dramatic, conveying messages from the Testament, representing the Divine Comedy and Judgement Day. At the back of the church, The altars are luxurious, the statue of Virgin Mary and the Saints are very bright and colourful and the displays are covered with gold and mirrors. The little church of San Pedro has the oldest organ in South America, imported by the Spaniards around 1450. A few ingenious symbols have been added to the traditional Christian representations, such as the Sun in the background of Mary and Joseph leaning over Jesus in the Nativity Scene and statues of little black boys preying.

We also visited the village of a beautiful little town with a handful of mud houses surrounding the Plaza and its church. At the back, you can visit the ruins of the oldest and largest known Inca Temple. Of it remains only a few main walls and towers but the surrounding ruins displays the typical alignment of Inca villages as well as the remains of hundreds of round houses once designed to store food and crops. This place was once a major community hub. The ruins are now surrounded by beautiful greenland and a lake, with sheep and lamas wandering the marsh making it a beautiful area to visit. We hear that the villagers are very kind welcoming people and that homestays are available. We would love to come back here some day! In addition, this community is very advanced in many respect: they have already banned the use of plastic bags, recycle water and use solar heating. This is fascinating!

One our way we crossed the highest border point in Peru at 4435m high. There a few stalls are providing the tourists with a chance to buy cheap quality alpaca gloves, hats, shawls and souvenirs. The sights are beautiful with snow on the peaks and the air is thin and crisp.

The last town we cross before arriving in Puno is Juniaca, although the capital of the department, this city is so corrupt with black market and tax evasion habits (all the houses and buildings are left unfinished, thus a avoiding the housing tax) that the infrastructure is inexistent, the roads are bad, the litter is everywhere, surrounding the city by the kilometers. A real desolation.
We arrived in Puno at 5pm, the city is really high up and the air is thin. We were however soon ready for dinner and bed, another early call was planned for the following with the mission to find an ethical island sleep over!

Early morning Ginette and I headed for the center of town to 2 recommended agencies that will help us book a tour with the aim of make sure that the funds reach the communities. Agency offering tour for $250 (GBP 50 each), very expensive but according to them this is the only way as we are too late for the public tours…it all sounds very twisted to us and we decide to bite the bullet and head for the harbour as we have read was possible but tricky.
Once there, there is a mini lane full of different agencies and a million guys accosting us trying to sell their tour. How to choose? we soon discover that they have different destinations and we choose to aim at sleeping on Amantani Island, one of the 3 main islands. The trip costs us 30 soles each (gbp6). On the way there, we will stop on the floating islands of Uros and on the way back on the famous Taquile islands.
Uros is amazing, made from reeds from the lake , this huge network of islands is fully inhabited. Our captain, keen on rotating the influx of the tourist between the islands, brings us to a little island inhabited by 2 families. They show us how their island is built, how they live, we climb on their floating boats etc
when we arrive on Amantani island, all the passengers are allocated to a family. This is when we meet Lidia and her son Ronald. Lidia is shy and quiet, probably wondering what kind of tourists she inherited of. If only she knew how thrilled and privileged we feel! She has been waiting for us and is about to serve us lunch. We are starving. We left Puno at 6 am and it us now 2pm. Fortunately we nibbled on a couple of cereal bars found at the bottom of our bags.
We introduce ourselves as we climb the little path to the village. It is only a few hundreds of meters long but at this altitude we are soon out of breath and stop for a break. The landscape is arid, a few trees and shrubs but it is mostly yellow dried grass and mud. The houses are squattered on the hill side and a stone path links the beach front to the top of the village. The air is cool but the sun is out which make it a pleasant temperature.
We notice that she is pleased that we speak Spanish and explains us the name of this community is Occosuyo which means in Quechua, green land of water’ as this island is fortunate to have a water source, enabling it to be fertile. We reach her house, a very ‘modern’ house from the outside, with the outer walls painted and has a ‘terrace’. As we walk in we notice the toilets are downstairs. There are 4 rooms upstairs: 3 of them are bedrooms, the last is the family room also used as kitchen but unlike any kitchen we have seen before there is no stove or sink. A single cupboard contains the family’s crockery and dry food, a bucket of water is the water supply and a tiny gaz hob on a wooden stand is used to cook the family meals. The room has 2 small wooden stools and a small table with 4 chairs. It is decorated with a couple of picture frames, the painting of a Saint surrounded by flowers and a calendar. I have never seen such a modest kitchen and eating space before and think of our very materialistic world…

Lunch is ready. We are invited to sit down whilst we are served a bowl of soup. It is quinoa, potatoes and vegetable soup. It is delicious, we all eat slowly to enjoy and make it last. Nothing in this room shows the presence of any else to eat and second servings do not seem to be an option either! But once our bowl empty, Lidia brings us a plate with fried eggs and a selection of boiled potatoes. Indeed quinoa and potatoes are the only things growing in those deserted high lands and this is the main and only food they get to eat. There are no fruits, very few vegetables, the meat is very expensive and the eggs are bought in. Once again, we are hit with a very harsh reality, a way of life, so basic and so different from ours, it is difficult to imagine and understand how these people can live like this.

She explains that today is a special day as there is a party in town to celebrate the last day of the Agricultural feria. Her daughter, son and husband are already there. Tourists are usually recommended to go and see the sunset from the top of the island which is a few kilometres away but we ask if we can join her and follow her to the village. She is delighted. As we finish our lunch she apologies for leaving us as she would like to get ready to go to the party. The boys quickly befriend the little boy and play with him with his toy cars and trains. The boys have started to learn Spanish and use a couple of basic words to communicate. But language is not an issue, the hands and smiles do the job.
In the meantime, We notice that Lidia uses a bucket of freezing cold water to wash her long black hair and face. She dresses in a typical multi layer black dress and with bright coloured stripes and embroideries. She prepares a large squared multi coloured textile and fills it with woolly hats and gloves to sell , and wraps it up around her back, sits her baby boy on it and get started.

Lidia is only small but she is super strong. She walks at fast regular pace , folded under the weight of the load. We are 45 mn walk away from the village. The path is steep to start with and exposed to the bright sunshine. We walk alongside dried fields and moonlike areas. Nothing grows up here, there are no trees either, just a path and little amazingly conceived little stone walls to mark the limit of each fields. We are struggling to breath, trying to pace ourselves, and at the end of a steep downhill on the other side of the mountain we reach the village.

On the main plaza of the village, the party was already full blast when we got there; 2 or 3 hundred villagers, dressed in their most traditional outfits were already eaton, drinking, dancing, playing the music. The 5 villages of the island were represented and although the villagers outfit were the same, the groups of performers were dressed in very different styles, representing their ‘tribes’. Thus we saw dancing, twirling, jumping, bowing in front of us, beautiful costumes with bright coloured embroideries, pom-poms, feathers, bright red hats, striped scarves. The band was playing bamboo and wooden recorders, massive drums and timbales, and were dancing around the plaza whilst performing. The spect actors were sat wither on the concrete stairs surrounding the plaza or on the grass area in the middle. People were eating little skewers of meat or potatoes and the men were drinking vast amount of beer. It was loud, the smell of roasted corn and beer mixing with the heat of the day, but it was magnificient to witness. Very tourists were there. The groups we had passed with their guide had chosen to go up the hill to see the view. We relished seating amongst the locals and drinking their beer and observing their ways, taking in their tradition. We were invited to join in the dance pulled by Lidia and her daughter. The boys played football with a plastic bottle with the little ones. We were ‘interviewed’ by a local recording the event and chatted with a lady about the meaning of the rituals. It was very special. Around 7pm, we headed back to our side of the island, with the family. A the night was pitched black lit by a full moon. The sky was massive and full of bright stars, we walked back up the steep path, huffing and puffing whilst the boys were running up it, chasing each other. Then we reached the ‘moonland’ and the most beautiful colours were filling up the sky, creating theatrical shadows behind the acheduc shape stadium standing alone at the top of the hill. By then the little ones were tired and whilst Lidia and her husband were carrying big loads back from the fair, Ranj carried little Ronald on his back, now fully adopted by him.
That night our dinner consists of a mini soup with carrots and potatoes and an omelette served with boiled potatoes (no oil, no greens, just that) of all sort: some are black, some small and redish, other long and thin like Anna potatoes; some are sweet, others are dry and some taste more like ‘topinanbour’, we can hardly finish our plates we are so full.
I seem to have caught an eye infection that afternoon and now have a big headache. After dinner I will head straight to bed, I pass out. That evening, Ginette will follow me with an early night whilst Ranj and the boys will have a couple of card games in their room before going to feel. We are all fully clothed as it is so cold, despite the 5 layers of blankets and rugs we have on the bed. The room is simple with 2 beds, no heating, a simple wooden window, a table and a chair. It is a shed and neither the wooden door and window, nor the brick wall will stop the cold from coming in and we will sleep at around 0 degres Celsius that night. Alex’s little body is squeezed against Ranj’s to keep warm? The toilets are downstairs in a little room of their own, with a 3/4 height door. It is freezing down there and only a bursting bladder will convince us to get our of bed to have a pee. At 6am sun rise, Ginette and I are up, me with a migraine by now. The views from the back only are stunning and we admire the massive ball of fire raising behind the lake Titicaca and a few of its billions of degrees reaching us and caressing our cold skin. I relish the sight and the fresh morning air and go back to lay down feeling too sick to stay up. The 4 paracetamol I took overnight did nothing. Lidia is up and Ginette asks her for advice for my headache. Lidia produces immediately a tea cup full of coca leaves. 15 min later my headache and nausea are gone! Time for Breakfast!
That morning we are served 2 delicious pancakes with a little jam and warm coca tea, it’s delicious and filling, enough to keep us going til lunch.
The boys have been amazing, being thrown in such a different environment, hostile at times, basic and certainly not as comfortable as what we are used to, accepting and satisfying themselves with the simple food and facilities that the experience offers us without once complaining or objecting. They know how lucky we are, how special and privilege our life is, they now see it for themselves.

Soon we need to leave and head back to the harbour where we will meet our boat and captain. We take a group picture with the family and us and Ginette. We hand over our payment to Lidia, the stay costs 30 soles per person (£6), but we happily leave them more. Their daughter is studying and loves it, she is 18 and will soon need to leave home to carry on her studies. We hope this will contribute to it. Lidia had explained us that they only have visitors once a month if they are lucky as the captain tries to rotate the allocation of the visitors so that all families can benefit from it a little. The agencies on the mainland send all the tourists to the main village as the infrastructure is better. So we promise ourselves to spread the world about the Occosuyo community and hope that they will get more visitors soon.

Our last stop on our Titicaca islands tour is Taquile island, the most famous of the islands as it has been protected by the Unesco Heritage. The walk up the village took us 30mn: it is a very steep stone staircase linking the harbour to the village at the top of the mountain. The air is very scarce and our lungs are struggling. But reaching the top is a reward as the sites onto the lake are beautiful. The famous stone gate frames the sight perfectly. As we reach the village, we are asked to pay the equivalent of £2 each and are asked not too photograph the locals!!! BAd start! Indeed the island seems to have spoilt by tourism, the people are not smiley, the plaza is empty of any life and joy. This is a dissapointment. The only ‘attraction’ is a weaving community center where local textile may be bought at twice the normal price and a community restaurant also serving an expensive lunch. We found a little cafe place on the opposite side of the place with little avocado sandwiches and at the time of paying the woman doubles her price compare to what she had quoted us! We swiftly headed back to the boat to head for our return journey to Puno, utterly disappointed by what was due to be the main attraction of the tour. We shall promote Amantani island!

That day was our last in Peru. That evening we will enjoy and full meal of typical local dishes: chicha morada, trout ceviche and causa.
The following morning, we caught the early express bus to La Paz as we need to leave for our next big trip in a few hours…

 

A piece of advice from Rj:

Prepare to be accosted every 10 meters: massage, restaurant touts, beggars, sightseeing tours, shops inviting you in and guys selling pictures.
You are a cash cow, deal with it, your money is not in fact yours you are merely keeping it warm.

Tourist prices vary between high, and wet your pants in shock and disbelief high.

Locals will shove you out of the way should you dare to linger in their path, the worst of these are old ladies who show no mercy.

Streets around Cusco are very narrow, develop your doorway sprint as soon as possible.

Horns are mandatory at all times, day or night:
1 beep: I am behind you
2 beeps: too late

Guinea pig tastes like chicken

Pisco sours at 3500meters will give you the mother of all hangovers which can easily be confused with altitude sickness!

There’s no such thing as a free walking tour

Urban police blow their whistles a lot, not for any particular purpose other than to make themselves heard above the horns

Zebra crossings are not crossings that drivers acknowledge, think of them more like Gatso stripes that just inform drivers how close they are to hitting you.

Queues: just because you are in a queue does not mean you will always move forward as you can suddenly find 24 school kids in front of you in a heartbeat.

Never EVER venture into the meat section of a Peruvian market, certain things should just not be seen let alone eaten.

On any sightseeing tour you will be taken to at least 2/3 markets/shops as apparently these are of historical/cultural interest in Peru.

Costume wearing women have a radar that alerts them to any cameras being pointed at them, should they hear a shutter they WILL chase you down the street for payment.

Cusco is where taxis come to pass their golden years

Peruvians do layers, not heating.

Don’t think of it as baby alpaca apparently woven on the thighs of virgins that seems like a good idea as lots of men are wearing them around town, think of it as it is: a jumper that says Peru on it with dancing llamas woven into it, it’s not pretty and never will be. Step away from the brightly coloured woven shoes now!