Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Dedicar mi blog

´Un dia Yo puedo dejar el peru,
pero este nunca saldra de mi.´

Quisiera dedicar mi blog a Lucia & Maria en Lima y Blanca, Abuela Aida & Ana en Cusco.


Y tambien, la familia de Blanca (y mascotas!), la escuela Amauta (Luz, Tanya, Sabrina, Mary, Maria, David, Simone, Rinskia, Sheryl y Mattias), Luis, David & Gabriel, Mari-Carmel & Javier (y familia de Lucia), Delfina, Kevin & Monika (y amigos), Maria & Aaron, Grupo GEA (Mario, Ana y Veronica), Pedro, Ivonne y Centro de Flora Tristan, Anna & Jorge & Marabel & Valentina (y Madre de Anna), fr. Lalo (y los padres), Milka & Charo, Estrella (y las mujeres de Los Olivos y San Benito) y Sian. And my fellow travellers who lifted the spirits of a lone traveller, Carlos from Mexico in Machu Picchu, Davina & Franck from Germany in Nasca, Mohammed from Malaysia in Trujillo, Ne from Piura on the bus to Trujillo, Dee from Seattle & Pablo from Lima & Yovana from Lima in Huarez.

Y mis familia y amigos, muchas gracias todo. xx

posted by Lou @ 11:08 PM 2 comments

Monday, January 08, 2007

Nevado Pastoruri, Cordillera Blanca

The Nevado Pastoruri. Due to global warming the ice is melting and will eventually disappear.

At 5240m the hour walk to the Nevado Pastoruri was slow and painful but it was worth it! The end of the road for me, the mountain tops of the Cordillera Blanca.

posted by Lou @ 7:32 PM 4 comments

Puya Raimondii, Quebrada Raria, Cordillera Blanca

La Puya Raimondii, the largest member of the bromeliads, or piña familia! It reaches 2m in height and takes 100 years to grow. It then flowers by producing a hugh 10m spike which is covered with 20,000 flowers for 3 months and then the plant dies! The puyas flower in groups every 3-4 years (not this year, then.)
The giant bromeliad is one of the world´s most ancient plant species and is considered a living fossil, found only in a few isolated areas of the Peruvian and Bolivian Andes.

posted by Lou @ 7:31 PM 0 comments

Huaraz y Cordilleras Blanca & Negra

Huaraz, in the Rio Santa valley, is the capital of the department Ancash (the size of Scotland or Holland). Most of the city was completely destroyed in the 1970 earthquake.

Huaraz is surrounded by two mountain ranges: the Cordillera Blanca to the east & Cordillera Negra to the west. The valley is called El Callejon de Huaylas.

posted by Lou @ 6:07 PM 0 comments

Inca kola

I´m still going strong with the Inca Kola, el peru´s finest fizzy pop.

posted by Lou @ 6:07 PM 0 comments

Chavin de Huantar

The Chavin didn´t conquer by warfare but by artistic and cultural development, and were much more stylized and cultist than the naturalistic style of the later Moche and Nasca. Corn was a staple diet along with squash, avocados and yucca. The Chavin through their art and religion of feline worshipping cults influenced a large part of el peru!

Below the Castillo are underground tunnels, and at the heart of the complex a 4m high monolith, carved rock called Lanzon de Chavin.

posted by Lou @ 6:06 PM 2 comments

Chavin de Huantar

Chavin de Huantar is the oldest major culture in peru 1000 to 300BC. The principle Chavin deity was feline (jaguar or puma) and lesser deities the condor, snake and human.
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The Castillo facing the hugh central square (and intricate and well-engineered system of channels for drainage). The walls were once embellished with tenons (keystones of large projecting blocks of carved stylised human heads).

The Callejon de Conchucos Valley and Laguña, towards Chavin de Huantar, Cordillera Blanca.

posted by Lou @ 6:05 PM 2 comments

Laguña Llanganuco, Cordillera Blanca

One of the two turquoise Lagunas in the Llanganuco valley, 28km east of Yungay, along the Callejon de Huaylas.

The laguñas are surrounded by beautiful mountains, this is montaña Huandoy (6160m). It was my dream to visit the Cordillera Blanca and after clouds in the morning, the snow peaks appeared for glimpses in the afternoon.

posted by Lou @ 5:55 PM 0 comments

Yungay, El Callejon de Huaylas, Ancash

The Rio Santa valley has suffered many natural disasters due to rising water levels in high mountain lakes breaching the thin wall of glacial debris which is also caused by avalanches and earthquakes.

On the 31 May 1970 an earthquake measuring 7.7 on the richter scale devastated central peru, killing 70,000 people: half the 30,000 population of Huaraz were killed and the entire town of Yungay with a population of 18,000 was completely buried by an aluvion (a hugh wall of water mixed with snow, ice, mud, and rocks) from montaña Huascaran (Peru´s highest montaña 6768m).

posted by Lou @ 5:53 PM 0 comments

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Jaime Rázuri



Annie told me of some very upsetting news today. Her friend the peruvian photographer Jaime Rázuri has been kidnapped in Gaza. It is on the front page of the newspapers here and there is a vigil in the plaza de Armas in Lima.

http://jaimelibertad.blogspot.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6227159.stm

posted by Lou @ 12:19 AM 1 comments

Trujillo

It´s been lovely to be back in Trujillo today after my trip to Mañcora. In the Museo cafe bar, cafe Roman and cafe Demarco they all remembered me and gave me a warm welcome! Am off to Huarez now..

posted by Lou @ 12:18 AM 1 comments

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

Trujillo y Winnie the Pooh!












On my return to Trujillo, the foto had to be taken, the navidad nativity as never before- Piglet as the flying arcangelo, Eyeore as Mary, Rabbit as Joseph and Tigger as the baby Jesus! And not forgetting Little Roo as Papa Noel!

posted by Lou @ 6:48 PM 0 comments

Yo dejo Mañcora Karibo

I think this was the live gig playing outside my hotel room in the morning hours of new years eve! Great tunes.

Had another nightmare, thought I was never going to leave Mañcora, the bus times change at will and apparently my pre-booked evening bus went in the afternoon. It´s described as a fishing village but Mañcora is a one street town on the dusty & noisey panamerican highway! For me, it lost its little charm very quickly.

posted by Lou @ 6:39 PM 0 comments

Monday, January 01, 2007

Feliz Años 2007!

Feliz Años Nuevo!

Yesterday to celebrate feliz años I went for a 6 hour walk along the pacific coast, south of Mancora (very close to the border with Ecuador)!

I begin 2007 with seized up knees & ankles and a nice bit of sunburn on the backs of my legs- can`t wait for my 10 hour bus journey to Trujillo tonight! Nice to see the sea. Now, for los montañas..!

posted by Lou @ 8:54 PM 4 comments