Peru

Peru is the third largest country in South America and the largest Andean country on the continent. It is known by many names: The sun country, Inca homeland, Eldorado. It consist of three major regions: Costa (valleys located near the shoreline), Sierra (Andes and various inferior mountain ranges) and Montana also known as Selva (forests and riverside) Peru has a diverse and quickly changing climate: moist and tropical in the forest, arid in the lowest parts of the mountains and arctic in the highest parts where the peaks are covered with the snow all year long. The country is famous for the ruins of Incan civilization, mountain temples, numerous archeological explorations, "saint lake" Titicaca and giant forms craved in the ground near Paracas bay. Trekking admirers praise Peru for its summits and volcanoes.

Scheduled program

We arrive to Lima, the capitol of Peru (almost 8 milion of inhabitants). From there, we will go to Piasco a famous place connected with popular national drink. After short stay, we will hit the road and go to Parcas National Park to admire flamingos, seals and penguins. Our next stop will be the magical Nasca Plateau - rocky desert in the valley of the Ingenio river. The biggest attractions of this place are the "giant drawings" craved into the ground known as "geoglyphs": two drawings of llama (20 m each), monkey (80 m), spider (46m), lizard (180 m), octopus (80 m), drawing of a man ( 650 m), and many others like whale and corals. Lots of smaller drawings are not complited or hard to identify. We will see most of the drawings from the air. After leaving Nasca, we will organize a trip to Arequipa and to Colca Canyon. Colca Canyon has been famed in the world by Polish kayakers in 1980 when the Polish team managed to kayaked through it for the first time in history. Our next destination will be active vulcano El Misti (5825 AMSL), then Puno and Titicaca Lake. Titicaca is the saint lake in Incan mythology. It is inhabited by Uru tribe, who lives on long floating islands made out of bulrush. We will pass the lake on one of those islands and during the trip, Uru tribe members will teach us about their cultur, history and customs. We will continue our journay to Cusco. Upon entering the town, the first thing we notice will be a great patchwork of little, dreamy streets and lanes that divides the city into quarters. From the nearby hills, Cusco looks like a valley covered with a orange carpet. This is the former capitol of Incan Empire and to this very day it attracts pilgrims from the entire country. After leaving Cusco, we will travel to the saint valley of Inca. We will see the ruins of Pisac and Ollantaytambo and little salt mines in Maras, where salt is still being extracted. Next a short train ride awaits us to reach Aquas Calientes and fabled lost city of Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is located 2400 AMSL hidden between two twin peaks of Machu Picchu and Huayna Picchu. Solid stone structures has been build on a small terraces along the valley of river Urubamba and despite many earthquakes that destroyed the land during the ages, they remained in almost ideal condition. We will take a closer look at Incan irrigation system that still miraculously works. We will also visit female burial site, old clock that usually is mistaken for a sundial (it shows the changing seasons), observatory, household buildings, barns where guinea gigs has been raised and kept (favourite Incan delicacy). After an exhausting and long day we will return for the night to Aquas Calientes. On the morrow we will go to Cusco and then head to Lima to catch a flight back home.

Date: June 2006
Deadline for participation: 15.04.2006
Length of the program: approx. 3 weeks
Cost: