Mancora
Never, Ever, come to Mancora in the high season on the New Year weekend without a reservation! After a 9 hour bus journey from Chiclayo I`ve had an absolute `mare- all the hotels are booked up (single travellers are completely discriminated against)! Sarita Colonia is looking after me though- by some divine miricle intervention after yet another hotel rejection I walked in to a hotel reception and there was Anna! A big hug and an offer of a place to stay the night saved my life! Anna and her familia have been staying here for Navidad. Marabel helped me find a hotel for the next two nights, we tried loads and my hotel was our last hope. It`s in the pueblo so unfortunately doesn`t have this rather nice view of the playa but I am very thankful to Sarita Colonia, Anna, Jorge, Marabel and little Valentina- Feliz Años Nuevo!!
Tucume (Lambayque)
Purgatorio (purgatory) is the name by which local people refer to the dozens of prehispanic pyramids, enclosures and mounds found on the plain around La Raya Mountain, south of the La Leche River. This is the site of Túcume, covering an area of over 540 acres and encompassing 26 major pyramids and platforms.
This site was a major regional centre, maybe even the capital of the successive occupations of the area by the Lambayeque (800-1350 AD), Chimu (1350-1450AD) and Inca (1450-1532AD). Local shaman healers (curanderos) invoke the power of Tucume and La Raya Mountain in their rituals, and local people fear these sites. Hardly anyone other than healers venture out in this site at night.
The plains of Tucume are part of the Lambayeque valle, the largest valle of the North Coast of Peru. The Lambayeque Valle has many natural and man-made waterways and is also a region of about 250 brick pyramids. The discovery of the Tucume pyramids was accidental. People were in search of gold they stumbled upon the ancient pyramid ruins.
Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipan
One of the greatest archaeological finds of the late 20th century, the Royal Tombs of Sipan now housed in the Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipan in Lambayque, near Chiclayo. 
The Moche were farmers, artists, fishermen and warriors (1st- 6th century AD) on the northern coast of Peru. The Moche were an heirarchical, advanced and complex civilisation, known through their temples, fortifications, irrigation systems, populated centres, cemeteries, ceremics and metal work. 
The Lord of Sipan funeral chamber- his ornaments, head-dresses, emblems and garments, surrounded by 8 members of his entourage, offerings at his feet and head, and 3 women less than 20 yrs old in their cane coffins. His military chief with weapons and combat garments, the standard bearer and a dog. In the corner a body of a child. Below were 2 llamas that were the first animals to be sacrificed. 212 vessels in symbolic order, containing offerings of food and drink.
Huaca de la Luna
The friezes of the Huaca de la Luna decorate the walls of the ramps leading up to the top ceremonial platform.
The temple is built alongside the Huaca del Sol on the Bank of the Rio Moche by the Moche (200BC - 850AD), made with thousands of mass produced mud bricks. The bricks were amassed in columns and built upwards in layers with connecting ramps to ceremonial courtyards. 
At the huaca de la Luna there were many brutal adult male sacrifices to the deity known as `Ayapec`, a pre Quechua word translating as all knowing. Human sacrifice also included the consumption of human blood by the Lord of Sipan, who was a Moche spiritual, military and civil leader. This act is believed to have been done to appease the Decapitator, mostly depicted as a spider, but also depicted as a winged creature or a sea monster.
The Moche believed in dualism and everything was connected from the sun, to the moon, to the land and to the sea. The fishermen were the most highly esteemed after the priests and the ruler. Their biggest fear was El Niño.
Chan Chan (Chimu)
Chan Chan, built in the 14th century and the largest Adobe city in the world, covering 28 sq km and consisting of ceremonial courtyards. At the height of the Chimu kingdom it would have housed over 60,000 inhabitants. Built beside the sea the sound of the waves can be heard from the ceremonial courtyards.
The Chimu, (850AD-1470) were not as artistically sophisticated as the Moche (200Bc - 850AD) and much of their ceramics and metal work was mass produced to use for bartering. The Chimu were assimulated by the Incas in 1471 as the Incas expanded north from Cusco. The city wasn´t looted until the arrival of the spanish. Part of Chan Chan has been questionably restored.
Feliz Navidad (Trujillo)
Christmas greetings from the Plaza de Armas Trujillo! Sorry, I didn´t take a foto of the Winnie the Pooh & Piglet nativity scene. Perhaps a little over-commercialisation this christmas time but there were also a thousand (screaming) children there and I couldn´t face it...!
Cafe Bar de Museo
Soft green leather seats and the best coffee in Trujillo.
Trujillo (Libertad)
The coastal colonial city of Trujillo is over 550km north of Lima and was founded by Pizarro in 1535. Trujillo is noted for the wrought-iron window grills of its elegant colonial mansions. A bigger attraction is the ´King Kong´cake!
Ella viaje peru norte
After the Navidad delights of Lima I am travelling north...
Trujillo & Libertad (Chan Chan y Huaca del Sol & Huaca de la Luna) - Chiclayo & Lambayque (Tumbas Reales de Sipan y Huacas de Tucume) - Mancora & Piura (La playa) - Huaraz & Ancash (Cordillera Blanca).
Feliz Navidad! (Lima)
Feliz Navidad - season´s greetings from Lima! Maria & David and Lucia have been making preparations all day. I helped cut the pineapples in half and then fell asleep for 4 hours this afternoon. I haven´t even had a glass of sherry!? It´s now 6pm, at 7pm the christmas tree and nativity lights are switched on and presents are shared. At midnight we have dinner in the garden! Maria, David & Gabriel have just left to travel home to be with their family for navidad.
El Papa!
Cienciano 2 v Universitario 1! Campeones!
Futbol: El papa de siempre!
With one game to go, four teams were all in position to win the clausura titulo! If Bolognesi won, the title was theirs. If they only drew and Alianza Lima won, they would win the title. If they both drew, La U´s or Cienciano could win but both playing away fixtures to Alianza Lima´s home game, Alianza were favourites. Alianza Lima lost 1-2 to the Sport Boys, Bolognesi FC lost 2-0 away to U. San Martin! Universitario won 0-1 against Union Huaral and Cienciano, my team, overcame FBC Melgar in Arequipa 1-2!! Tonight, La U´s play Cienciano in Trujillo to contend for the title of the tourna Clausura. The winner plays Alianza Lima (as the winners of the opening tournament) to claim the title of League campeons!!
Mount Misti, Arequipa
The Collaguas of Arequipa are notable for their excellent textil skills and ability as shepherds of large alpaca flocks. In 1540, the spanish founded the city of Arequipa at the foot of Mount Misti. Arequipa is an important commercial and industrial centre. In the 19th century, Aerquipa became an important centre for sheep and alpaca wool exportation to England, managing to establish its own economic strength in the country. The department of Arequipa begins in the coastal desert and climbs the Andes, reaching great altitude at the snow covered peaks of Mount Ampato (6288m) and Mount Chachani (6075m) and at its volcanoes such as Mount Misti (5825m). Arequipa also has two of the deepest canyons on earth: the Cotahuasi and Colca Cañons.
Catedral, Arequipa
Arequipa´s 17th century Catedral on the Plaza de Armas built of Sillar, (white volcanic stone). Arequipa is known as ´La Cuidad de Blanca´. Destroyed by a fire in 1844 and rebuilt in a Neo-classical style. In 2001, the catedral was struck hard by an earthquake seriously damaging its towers.
Isla Taquile, Lago Titicaca
The Isla Taquile is 6km long and an over 2hr boat journey from Puno. With a population of just over 2000, the taquile people have a very strong identity & traditions, and rarely marry non-Taquile people.
On the Isla Taquile, the women weave and the men knit their own hats as part of deeply ingrained social customs. An elder wears a multi-coloured striped hat symbolising his past and position. This rather kind elder was my dancing partner after lunch!
When a man is married his hat is red, and if he is single the hat is half red and white.
Islas Flotantes, Lago Titicaca
The floating islands of the Uros people on Lake Titicaca- the isla de ´Amanecer´. The Uros are a small tribe who created the islands to isolate themselves from the warrior tribe Colla and the Incas. The islands are made of blocks and layers of reeds. As the bottom level rots, a new layer is placed on top every 15 days. 
Around 12 families live on this island made of totora reeds. A family making empanadas. Several hundred people live on the Islands and make a living from fishing and tourism.
Sillustani, Lago Umayo
The Colla people of the peninsula dominated the region of Lago Titicaca and were Aymara-speaking warriors. They grew maiz, quinea, papas, were fishermen and raised alpaca. The Colla buried their nobility in funerary towers 12m high, called ´chullpas´. The small door of the chullpas points east, the direction of the Andes as their spirit returns to the mountains. The chullpas at Sillustani are positioned in the Orion southern constellation, cruz del sur. Each tower housed a family group.At 3890m, the peninsula is bleak and brooding.
Puno y Lago Titicaca
In the bay at Puno is a steamship called the the ´Yavari´- the oldest steamship on Lago Titicaca, and built in England in 1862. All 2766 iron parts for two vessels were shipped around the Cape Horn to Arica, by train to Tacna before being hauled by mule over the Andes to Puno. It took six years!
Plaza de Armas, Puno
A political rally on friday morning in the Plaza de Armas in support of Ollanta. Ollanta Humala is a left-leaning nationalist politician and a former Army Lieutenant Colonel. He ran in the pesidential election this year with his own Nationalist Party losing to Alan Garcia. In October 2000, he led a failed uprising in the Tacna Region (south of Puno) against then President Alberto Fujimori. He hid until President Fujimori was impeached from office and Valentin Paniagua Corazao was made interim president. Prosecutors in Peru have now filed murder charges against Ollanta Humala, accusing him of human rights abuses during the 1990s. The charges date to when Humala was an army base captain at a jungle base in San Martin province. He is accused of forced disappearance, torture and murder during the fight against Shining Path guerrillas. During the 1990´s, the military detained innocent people. In several massacres, the military wiped out entire villages. Military personnel took to wearing black ski-masks to hide their identity as they committed these crimes.
Feliz Navidad (Puno)
Feliz Navidad de Puno! An all sparkling christmas nativity crib in a frozen pollo shop in Puno.
Peña
Traditional music and dancing from Colca and Arequipa.
Cañon del Colca
Colca Canyon, 3hrs drive from Arequipa and the western Andes. One of the deepest canyons in the world (3191m), el peru claims the deepest in the world (I believe them!). At the Cruz del Condor, known locally as Chaglla, and home to nearly 50 condors. It is nesting season now, but we saw five gliding on the thermal air currents (my wildlife photography wasn´t even close..!).
Reserva Nacional Aguada Blanca y Salinas
Vicuñas wool sells for hundreds of pounds. They are beautiful, like a female deer. They blend in with the grassland but then suddenly you would see one pop its head up over the brick wall!On our way from Arequipa to the Colca Canyon, passing through a reserve of Vicuñas, Alpacas and Llamas and the volcanoes Misti, Hualcahualca and Mismi!
Monasterio Santa Catalina, Arequipa
The colonial religious ´Monasterio Santa Catalina´ has been a convent since 1580, very shortly after the spanish arrived, founded by a rich widow Maria de Guzman. It is a small enclosed city of narrow streets, false staircases, colonnaded cloisters and their individual living quarters and a hugh kitchen. There are rows of small confessionals attached to the church and a room of wooden grill windows where they could talk to the outside world and exchange (worldly) goods!The nuns, from upper-class families (the second daughter of the family), had a ball holding music-parties and continuing to live the life they were accustomed to, until the strict dominican nun arrived in 1871!
Feliz Navidad (Nasca)
My christmas card, the peru way!Feliz Navidad mis familia y amigos chicos!besosxx
Lineas de Nasca
THE NASCA LINES 20km north of the town of Nasca, within 500sq km of an arid and rock-strewn plateau, on a plain called the Pampa Colorada lies the mystery of the Nasca Lines! 800 straight lines, 300 geometric figures (geoglyphs) and over 70 animals and plants (biomorphs).
The lines were created by removing the iron oxide coated pebbles which cover the surface of the desertio. The desertio is one of the driest on earth and maintains a yearly temperature of around 77°F.
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Maria Reiche (1903-1998), was a german mathematician and researcher who devoted her life to studying and preserving the Nasca lines created by the Paracus and Nasca cultures (900BC- 600AD) with additions by the Wari settlers (from the mountains) in the 7th century.
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The ´mono´ (monkey) is one continuous line and continues on to connect with other lines in the desierto. Maria Reiche believed the lines to be an agricultural seasonal calendar and connected to star constellations. Some lines point in the exact direction of sunrise and sunsets for both the summer and winter solstace. After my star-gazing lesson last night at the Maria reiche lecture I want to believe her.
The ´hummingbird´. Most scholars now support the theories of Johann Reinhard who maintains the lines were part of a mountain and water worship as part of a fertility and water cult of the Nasca cultures. The animals were possibly sacrifices to a deity or the gods and hence only seen from above. (Nasca ceramics depicted figures and animals in 2-D and 3-D simultaneously, and influenced Picasso & Cubismo in the early 20th century!). Ceremonies performed on the rectangular shapes and walking rituals along the lines. Everything is connected- life, the land, the sky and water.
Cementerio de Chauchilla, Nasca
The arid Nasca desierto- it only rains for a couple of hours a year during the months of Enero to Marzo! Farmers today still use the irrigation water aqueducts built by the Nasca cultures (200BC- 600AD).
Cementerio de Chauchilla, Nasca
12 Nasca (200BC- 700AD) burial sites have been recovered in Chauchilla, 30km outside of Nasca in the desierto. Another 80 sites are known of with possibly many more yet undiscovered. The men, women and babies were mummified in the foetal position, wrapped in cotton alongside ceremica bowls with maiz and shells. Cotton is still grown in the area.
Huacachina Lagoon, Ica
Huacachina is an oasis lagoon just outside of Ica, surrounded by incredible sand dunes. In the last 20yrs the water level of the lagoon has drastically reduced and instead of being a deep turqoise blue the water is a brown green colour.
It was ferociously hot first thing this morning (I wish I had stayed longer as Nasca is hot, dusty and a one horse town). Before the 3 hour bus journey to Nasca I visited the excellent Museo Regional de Ica and learnt about the drug- taking- hallucinating tribes of Nasca & tonight there is a lecture about the Nasca Lines at the Hotel Nasca- all ready for my flight over the Nasca lines tomorrow morning!
Bodegas Vista Alegre, Ica
Ica is an hour´s bus ride south of Pisco and the capital of the desert region. Because of the 40 rivers that run from the Andes the coastal regions are very fertile. Ica is famous for its making of Pisco for the national drink Pisco Sours! Ica is also surrounded by vineyards and will be harvesting at the end of Febrero. I visited one of the older vineyards and perhaps not one of the best wines in the region, so I didn´t buy a case...
Islas Ballestas Paracus
Paracus is a 3 hour bus ride south of Lima, just beyond the commercial town of Pisco. My first night didn´t go well, After hearing a large cochroach run around my budget-range hostel room, it landed on me and after screaming the house down, the Senora of the hotel came to my rescue! I´ve decided to upgrade.
My dear friend Adrian, this foto is dedicated to you, entitled ´bird poo´! Las Isla Ballestas is famoso for its ´guano´ and the smell was slightly over-whelming . Rather tainted the experience- but hey, that´s natural wildilfe for you!
Las Islas Ballestas was used in a scene in which film!? A Chullos for anybody who can name the film- a small clue, the film is also a classic book (one of my favourites) and is set in the 19th century!
La Isla Ballestas, Paracus
The Isla Ballestas also has colonies of sea-lions and penguins, an early morning speed boat trip off the coast of Paracas.
Ella viaje Peru Sur
LIMA - PARACUS (La Isla Ballestas) - ICA (Huacachina Oasis) - NASCA (Lineas de Nasca) - AREQUIPA (Colca Canyon & Los Condors)- PUNO (Lago Titicaca)My month in Lima has finished and now I start travelling to the south before Navidad,and to the north after navidad. I am returning to Lima to spend Navidad with Lucia & familia and Maria & familia!
Proyectos de la Mujeres *Lima
I spent the afternoon with Milka, Charo and Estrella visiting two womens projects in Lima. Lima´s population is rapidly expanding but often the land being used for housing has no electricity or water supply. San Benito & Neuve Jerusalan are next to an enormous rubbish tip site. The women face many difficulties socially, economically and health-wise. It was a privilege to meet them all.
The women are learning textiles, design and emboidery to sell the materials they make in the local markets. The course runs for 3 months. This is a young women´s group I met in Neuve Jersalen, a districto 2 hours drive by bus from the centre of Lima. The project empowers women helping them to be economically independent.
Estrela, on the right, runs the womens programmes and accompanied me to two of the groups. She is an amazing woman, very calm, much warmth and strong!
Peru is a very macho society and it is extremely difficult for the lives of the women. This is a group of women attending classes in Self-esteem and human rights, in the district of San Benito, next to Neuve Jerusalen. San Benito has developed in the last 10 years and has no electricity, no water and severe health problems, including cases of high levels of lead.
Women attend courses in hairdressing and cookery. This group of women have an exam tomorrow so there was a lot of shrieking when Estrela told them!
Milka, left, runs the womens programmes in Los Olivos, Lima and Charo is a mid-wife. She runs a health clinic for the women of San Benito.
Never, Ever, come to Mancora in the high season on the New Year weekend without a reservation! After a 9 hour bus journey from Chiclayo I`ve had an absolute `mare- all the hotels are booked up (single travellers are completely 
