Raphael Kessler

During our honeymoon we visited Peru.

We crossed over the border along the side of Lake Titicaca to Puno. Previously, Puno had been one of the most unpleasant towns I had ever visited, however due to some developments, it now seems quite nice. The totoro reed rafts (know locally as Uros) and boats may well be a modern construct as there is no anthropological or historical evidence to explain why historically the people lived on the rafts.

Cusco is the most popular destination in Peru and consequentially a hub for tourists of all different types. The streets around the Plaza de Armas are now filled with hotels and tourist restaurants. It is also where some of the finest examples of pre-Colombian masonry and architecture exist, though the Spanish Conquistadors destroyed much of it.

The Choco Museo was somewhere we could learn about chocolate and its importance to the indigenous culture. We also got to make our own chocolates and sample some made by the experts. See if you can work out which ones were made by each of us in the last four photos.

The Sacred valley leads from Cusco to Machu Picchu and there are numerous archaeological sites between the two.

We did a tour of some of the archaeological sites closest to Cusco.

Machu Picchu is probably the most famous archaeological site in the Americas. Despite this, no-one really knows what it was built for and by comparison with many other sites, it isn't even that old.

Arequipa is known as the White City, due to the volcanic Sillar rock used in so much of its construction. It is home to a pleasant Plaza de Armas and numerous churches, as well as the convent of Santa Catalina. There is a nice market divided into sections and we stayed in a lovely old colonial house.

The convent of Santa Catalina is now open to the public and is very pretty and tranquil.

Cabanaconde is a nice little town, where we stayed before and after visiting the Colca Canyon. There one can see the women dressed in their traditional attire.

Colca canyon is famous for being the world's deepest canyon (twice as deep as the Grand Canyon) and for the birds that live there. Particularly the Andean condor which we saw several of, sometimes right up close.

In Paracas we stayed with Luis, whose main business is scallop farming. We also saw a spectacular display as there was obviously a baitball, which the birds were obliterating. One can see the birds diving in to the water, with their wings pulled in, they look like darts entering the water - look at the feeding frenzy photos.

In the following short video you can see first the flocks of birds swarming past.

In this video, you can see the birds diving to get the fish.

The Ballestas Islands are a nature reserve where we saw cormorants, turkey vultures, Peruvian boobies, fur seals and Humboldt penguins.

Huacachina is apparently the only oasis in the Americas, set amongst the sand dunes.

Nasca, is home to the famous lines and geoglyphs. We saw a lovely sunset there and the hands and tree geoglyphs, as well as a selection of lines heading out in to the distance.

The first time I first crossed into Peru was from the north and headed along the coast, as it was the rainy season in the highlands.

There are a number of archaeological sites along the coast. They are not as famous as many of the other Peruvian  pre-Colombian archaeological sites, however are generally much older, some dating back many thousands of years.

Near the city of Chiclayo are the sites of Sipan, Tucume and others. The structures are mostly adobe structures. At Sipan (photos), they are tombs, with incredible riches buried with the internees. The Tumbas Reales museum is excellent, showing the original artefacts extremely well presented. Whilst at Sipan I saw some nice vultures.

Near to Trujillo are numbers of sites. The site of Chan Chan (photos) is a very large adobe complex with some nice reliefs on the walls, as well as a real feeling that it was a place where people lived and practised their religious beliefs. 

The Huaca de la Luna (photos) is a pyramid that is being excavated. The frescoes are very impressive, particularly when one considers that they are thousands of years old.

The Huaca del Arco Iris has some really nice relief on its walls.

The Ballestas islands south of Lima are home to some nice wildlife, including penguins, Peruvian boobies, sealions, lots of other stuff. There are also some terrific views of the coast in the area. The Candelabra (photo 8), is a symbol etched into the sandy beach. Nobody knows how it got there, some attribute it to the Nazcan people, but most likely it was done not long ago. The most plausible idea is that General San Martin was responsible for it, just a couple of hundred years ago, as apparently it was a symbol he sometimes used. 

From the desert oasis of Huacachina one can set out to see the dunes and then go sand-boarding down them and dune-buggying up and down over them.

The lines at Nazca and Palpa are not visible from the ground, but from the air they are phenomenal. There are a number of easily recognisable figures, such as a monkey (photo 2), hands (photo 3), spider (photo 4), hummingbird (photo 5), condor (photo 6) and several humanoid figures (photos 7 & 8) and some odd looking things (photo 9). There is also a solar clock (photo 10). There are several geometric figures, trapezoids and the like (photo 11). The reason they are called the lines though, is because the area is criss-crossed in lots of really long, absolutely straight lines (photo 12). There are numerous theories, from the truly bizarre to the mildly odd. The aqueducts in the area are thousands of years old and can be most clearly seen from the air (photo 13). Apparently the same families have been maintaining the aqueducts for generations and they still perform the same function as well as new. 

When I returned to Peru, I crossed near Puno (one of the worst looking towns I have ever had the displeasure to see). It is on Lake Titicaca, nearby are some floating islands made of Tortora reeds. The people who live there apparently did so out of laziness. They didn't want to work so they moved there, that way all they have to do is fish a bit, shoot the birds that are foolish enough to come  within range and laze about. They used to use boats made of Tortora reeds, now they use wooden boats, the traditional style ones are only for tourists. The one below (photo 4) on closer inspection was stuffed with empty plastic water bottles for added buoyancy.

My friend Micha came out to South America for a while, as you can tell from the picture below he is from Holland. The sign in the second picture says "Prohibido Orinar" which means urinating prohibited, we disregarded that one. The last picture shows how dangerous the Dutch can be when they have had a few drinks and are allowed near fire, as Micha attempts to set fire to our dancing friend Angela. 

Cuzco the former Inca capital has some attractive architecture and churches (photos 1-5). 

The block work in Cuzco is impressive. The people formerly cut each block to fit the next block, they were not standardised like bricks. The tightness of the fitting is a testament to the quality of workmanship. The most famous of these blocks is one of twelve angles (photo 1), mistakenly promoted as the block with most angles in Cuzco. Actually just around the corner from this block is one with thirteen angles, though it doesn't look so nice. After colonisation, many of the existing buildings were destroyed, others had their walls used and then were extended with western methods  (photo 2). The most striking example of the Spaniards creating this hybrid is Qoricancha  (photo 3). Inside the symmetry of the windows is impressive  (photo 4).

It would also seem that they enjoy a bit of a parade, whilst I was there I saw various people marching. Including the military (photos 1 & 2), several guilds, school children, strikers, political groups and a bloke with a big Inca flag (photo 3) .

The nightlife in Cuzco is very good, although the folk dancing is incredibly boring (photo 1). Some friends of ours were great fun and excellent percussionists, Ernesto being the maestro, in the final thumbnail you should be able to see a bit of low quality video of him in action. In the second photo (photo 2) is his band at work, with his nephew Carlos helping out on Congos.

Cuzco was the Incan capital which is why they have a statue of Pachacutec the famous Inca. Inca is actually the king, not the people, who are the Quechua, as is their language. 

Near Cuzco in "The Sacred Valley" are several more pre-Colombian sites. I visited several of these, Sacsayhuaman (photos 1-3), Que'nqo (photo 4) and Pucapara (photo 5).

The most famous site in Peru is most certainly Macchu Picchu. It is certainly impressive and was left surprisingly intact by the Spanish Conquistadors, because they didn't know it was there. When the Spanish got to Cuzco in 1534, the people destroyed the starts of the paths and covered the trails, so nobody would know that their holy capital was off in the mountains. As a result it was forgotten by almost everybody, except for a few locals who knew it was there. That was until Hiram Bingham decided to rediscover it at the beginning of the twentieth century, so that tourists can go visit it. 

The site is certainly impressive, although it should be remembered that at the time, more impressive buildings did exist in many other parts of the world. This is also true of South America, where some much more impressive cultures had been and gone before the first Inca shaped an odd shaped block. The Incas empire only became so famous and renowned amongst those in South American because it was the one that the Spanish destroyed. The pub down the road from me in London is actually older than Macchu Picchu, though not particularly note-worthy (although very nice). 

There is a certain majesty to the place though, in no small part due to its setting. Coupled with the entirety of the site and buildings being visible (photo 1), it is still somewhere special. It is also a really cool shape, because when you look at it on its side, it looks like a face (photo 2). The construction of the place is quite overwhelming, for the reason that there are so many better suited locations. They had to reshape the whole mountain, just to get it to fit right. This meant building terraces, that could also be used for agriculture (photo 4). The pilgrims would have approached the site from the sun gate, this would make the approach even more impressive as different parts came in to view (photo 5). The block carving at Macchu Picchu is generally more impressive than anywhere else I have seen (photos 6 - 9). The work involved shows what great significance the site had. There are examples where it seems that the artisans carved rock as though it were butter, shaping it to fit their needs (photo 6). They would also shape the rock already at the site to use as foundations for buildings (photo 7). Most of the buildings are set around a central area (photos 11-13) and would have had pitched roofs, slatted with wood and fronds (photo 14). There are also a number of beautiful flowers growing around the place (photo 15).

From the top of Huayna Picchu one can see almost the whole of the Macchu Picchu site (photos 1 - 3). Some say it resembles a condor and I think it does a bit, though I think that the shape of the terrain dictated this more than any civil engineer.

Whilst at the site there were lots of Alpacas around. Some were shagging, which was not a particularly attractive sight (photo 1). It also gave me the chance to do some llama wrestling, I hadn't practised for a while and I didn't want to lose any of my hard-earned skills (photos 2 & 3). 

Another pre-Colombian site I visited not far from Cuzco was the lesser known Choquekirao. The site of Choquekirao is some way from any roads. This is the first thing that limits the number of people visiting it, the other is that it is a longer and harder trek than the more popular Inca Trail. This meant that I had to trek for around fifty kilometres there and back. Descending thousands of metres to the Apurimac river and then climbing fifteen hundred metres on the other  to the site, before doing the same thing in reverse. This took me three days, hard work but well worth it. The historical site at the end of the trail is certainly interesting, although the flora, fauna and scenery en route makes the trek much more engaging (photos 1 - 11). The majority of the trail was not very easy, from afar it looked like a giant Zorro had been over zealously practising his sword slashes on the mountainside (photo 8). The path on the other side of the valley was steeper and less well trodden, but not particularly visible due to trees and other vegetation.

The site, of which only thirty percent has apparently been excavated, was visible from several kilometres away (photo 1) and is apparently larger than that of Macchu Picchu, although there are less buildings. The building style is quite different as the stone in the area was not appropriate for the nice carving as seen in Macchu Picchu or Cuzco. This site is also set along the top of a rocky promontory, with terraces along one side (photos 1 - 6).

Ollantaytambo is a pleasant village just a couple of hours from Cuzco. It is also home to some nice pre-Colombian ruins (photos 1-4).

Whilst in Ollantaytambo, I was lucky to be there, when the locals were celebrating their saint's day, with costumes, dancing, fireworks and parades (photos 1-7), before ending up at the village church. Part of the process seemed to involve a number of masked and costumed dancers in a circle whipping each others ankles with ropes (photos 5-7) and trying to get the next person in the circle to fall over (photo 6).

Arequipa is also known as the White City as so much of its colonial centre is built from the white sillar volcanic rock. It is not a particularly robust rock, so the walls of the impressive cathedral (photo 1) are incredibly thick. The most appealing site in town is the amazing Santa Catalina convent. This Convent is like the tardis, one can walk around the outside in a short time, walking around the inside though is like walking around a large village, complete with streets and junctions, just quieter and more colourful. The majority of the convent is in blue, orange, red and white (photos 2-14), with some nice frescos that seem to have been drawn by the freemasons (photo 15). A surprisingly good looking place for those supposedly living a life of  austerity. Part of the convent is still being used as such and is not open to the public. The part on show, has only been so, since 1970, after 400 years of secrecy and isolation.

Toro Muerto is an area covered with literally thousands of pieces of sillar, volcanic rock carved with petroglyphs. Some of the representations are quite obscure although many are recognisable as various animals, birds or people. Apparently the area used to be a major crossroads in the pre-Colombian trade routes. So this was probably their version of graffitti or doodling.

The Colca Canyon (photos 1 & 2) is sometimes dubbed as the world's deepest, that honour actually goes to the Cotahuasi Canyon a bit further down the road. The Colca Canyon has some very nice terracing, however it is particularly famous for being what is probably the easiest place to see a condor (photos 3 & 4), the massive Andean bird. They glide on the thermals that rise up the canyon in the early morning. When going off to see the canyon, also got to see some Vicuñas (photos 5 & 6). There were also some really great views of the mountains (photos 7 & 8).

Huaraz is set between the Cordilleras Blanca and Negra. This makes the views of the mountains from the city centre seem almost artificial. It only takes a short bus ride to get up close and personal with the mountains themselves (photos 1 - 9). The lakes at Llanganuco (photo 9) make an already beautiful valley, truly excepional.

Near to Huaraz is the pre-Colombian site of Willcawain (photos 1 - 4), not the most dramatic I have visited, but still nice.

Chavin de Huantar (photos 1 - 4) is another pre-Colombian site, this one though is much older. It dates from around 800 BCE, which makes it properly old. The site is interesting to visit and when I was there, it was made all the more bizarre when a group of Floridians on a meditation holiday turned up all dressed in white. When I asked one of the Peruvians what was going on, he told me it was some kind of American meditation thing, looking for something he didn't know what. It then turned out he was supposed to be their Shaman, the whole thing was obviously a scam, the gullible Floridians seemed happy enough, even when the women were being groped and fondled, whilst having Inca Kola (a local soft drink) spat and sprayed over them, in what was supposed to be a Shamanistic ceremony. A good time was had by all. The meditators thought they were doing well, the Peruvians were enjoying their freedom and having a bit of a giggle. I was finding the whole thing absolutely hysterical and at times the Canadian girl I was there with and I, were crying with laughter.

There is some really nice carving at the Chavin site. The stele at the entrance (photo 1), is actually an exact facsimile of one found at the site, now in a museum. The columns and lintel are original though (photos 2-4), the carving there being intricately executed. There are also several smiling heads popping out the walls (photo 5).

Underground is also interesting at Chavin, as there is a complex of numerous tunnels (photos 1 & 2). There are theories about many of the underground chambers. The underground monolith is impressive (photo 3) and thankfully remains in situ, by virtue of the fact, the only way to get it out, would be to remove the entire complex above it. 

Lima, the capital of Peru has a good underground party scene and some nice overground stuff too. The Palacio de Govierno is nice (photo 1) and the changing of the guard there is charmingly amusing. The archbishop's palace is also very pleasant (photo 2). The San Francisco church is very attractive inside with a nice library (photo 3), a Mudejar style nave (photo 4) and the bones of many thousands of people in the underground catacombs (photo 5). The archaeologists were apparently responsible for the nice arrangement of the bones. The litter I blame on tourists.