Subject: Re: #19-world tour -Peru-Lima-Cusco-Machu Pichu
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 2006 03:32:50 +0000
My dear family and friends
i am in Peru-country #12 and last in my world tour, it is a
big country, 5 times bigger than Great Britain, population 28 millions,
rich in minerals, history and archeology, the capital Lima is a modern
city of 7.5 millions, have beautiful beaches, full of people and
surfers, in my city tour i learned about 3 historic
cultures here,preInca, Inca and colonial, we saw
ancient centers of administrative and religious life,ruins of inca
temples on top of which spanish conquistadors built catolic churches
and cathedrals with a lot of gold and silver,
Lima has interesting residential areas with colonial and
european houses, many parks,outdoor art, street cafes, flat roofs
because it never rains here, this is a coastal desert, Pacific ocean
has cold current -Gumboldt and no evaporation, but flowers and greenary
look very fresh, they have very good artificial irrigation system and
plenty of water comes from 52 Andean rivers, Miraflores-the best
residential area has Love or romantic park with a huge sculpture
of a kissing couple, every Valentines day here is a competition for a
peruvian kiss, last year winners had it for 43 minutes,
i visited a world class Archeological museum housed in a
spectacular colonial mansion having 45 000 objects of
preColombian art, Inca art of ceramics, metal works, textiles and
erotic art, one of the tribes in that region used circumcisions as a
religios ritual{ may be it was a lost tribe of Israel}.
Than i flew to Cusco, elevation 11 000 feet,pop. 350 000, what a
charming city, surrounded by Andes mountains, narrow
cobble-stoned streets go up and down, red tiled roofs, plazas with
cathedrals and fountains, beautiful wood carving of balconies,
doors, windows, furniture, Cusco was a capital of Inca Empire
which lasted only about 100 years , was planned and built in the
shape of Puma , symbol of energy and power, now it is the archeological
capital of the Americas, city economy almost total depends on the
international tourists coming to see Machu Pichu, today i saw it,
i took a 4 hour back packers train at 6 am going up
through Andes, than a bus climbing up the serpintine mountain road to
7700 feet and than walked with a huge crowd and a tour guide of
inca descent,
THIS IS MAGICAL
the stone city on top of the highest mountains peaks, stone
works are so fine , knowledge of sun, moon ,sky, stars, time, calendar
was so sofisticated and it all disappeared in 16 century when spaniards
came, supposedly to keep a secret, professor of Yale Hiram
Bingham came here in 1911, talked to locals, they led him to the top of
the mountain where he discovered lost city covered by the tropical
vegetation, the natural beauty and archeological importance make
this site like no other place in the world, there is an inca
trail -50 miles long and it takes 4 days to climb it , it is worth it
of any discomfort or problems to come to this place, get to Machu
Pichu and see this spectacular andmysterious ruins of the
past and majestic mountains,
thank you ,Ilushenka, for suggestion to include it as part of my world tour,