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The Salt Pans Of Salinas, Peru
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 16 January 2011
Salinas Salt Pans (Sacred Valley in the background)We drove along a dusty road high above the Sacred Valley, on our way to visit Salinas, the intricately-terraced, salt pans which have produced hundreds of pounds of salt e
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Volleyball In The Sacred Valley
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 13 January 2011
When I started my volunteer job in Cusco, Peru I was a bit tentative around the office. My Spanish was fairly good and I had the daily greetings down, but it wasn’t good enough to walk up to someone and “shoot the breeze” for any length of time.
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Early Morning Beauty – Cusco
Blog: Viva Latin America! - 12 January 2011
Arriving into Cusco at a bleary-eyed 05:30 ended up giving us the most favourable impression of the city. We headed straight for the Plaza de Armas in the hopes of wandering round and finding accommodation. The central square was a wonderful sight, bathed in the soft early light of day with a complementing lack of [...]
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Overrated Tourist Attractions
Blog: Never Ending Voyage - 11 January 2011
Films When I sat down one idle Saturday to watch Primer, I wasn’t expecting anything. I remember reading someone on Twitter going on about it, but I didn’t put much stock in his opinion cause, you know, Twitter.
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Machu Picchu Pictures
Blog: Two Backpackers - 10 January 2011
The Inca ruins of Machu Picchu in Peru is perhaps one of the most spectacular sites you can visit in South America. From the complexity of building the city on top of a mountain ridge surrounded by mountains, to the unbelievable story of how it remained intact and untouched for hundreds of years all contribute [...]
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“Feel Good” Travel
Blog: See Simi Travel Blog - 4 January 2011
With 2010 now behind us, we have five years left to meet the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals to end extreme poverty. In 2000, when the goals were set, 50% of the world’s population lived on only $1/day. A decade later, these people are surviving on $1.25. Although $0.25 may not seem like much, it does give hope. This is a huge undertaking, and it is encouraging that our leaders have come together to try to address this problem, together.
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Photo of the Week: Colourful Dress in the Andes
Blog: Never Ending Voyage - 2 January 2011
We spent three weeks in a remote rural area in the Andes above Huaraz, Peru. Every day we’d pass Quechua speaking women in their traditional colourful dress. Everyone had long plaits under tall, embroidered hats, wide bright skirts, woolly tights and colourful cardigans.
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Wait, What Do You Do Again?
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 27 December 2010
By Eric Burdullis, KF12, Cuzco, Peru As a Kiva Fellow, no two days are the same. One morning I will wake up at 5am to try to visit a borrower before they head out to work, and the next I’ll be in the office uploading loans or training the Kiva team on how to take [...]
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Peru Highlights
Blog: Never Ending Voyage - 21 December 2010
We didn’t do any of the things you are supposed to do in Peru: we didn’t walk the Inca Trail, spot condors at Colca Canyon, go sand boarding in Huacachina, or fly over the Nazca lines.
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Catching the Christmas Spirit
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 20 December 2010
By Eric Burdullis, KF12, Cuzco, Peru First of all, I love Christmas. The tree, Christmas lights (you can ask my parents about what I did to our house when I was a little kid), hot cider, going over to Grandma´s house on Christmas Eve, eating tamales (everyone has their own Christmas traditions), the stockings, Eggs Benedict Christmas morning, watching my Beagle open up his gifts. The feeling of being around those who you love and those who love you.
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Photo of the Week: Circuito Mágico del Agua
Blog: Never Ending Voyage - 19 December 2010
The highlight of Lima for us was visiting the Circuito Mágico del Agua (Magic Circuit of Water). This park is full of many water fountains of all different shapes and colourful light displays. Some like this one are interactive, so the brave can get wet running in and out of the water.
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Ride ‘Em Cowboy! (10K past Valle Grande, Argentina)
Blog: A Wayward Journey - 18 December 2010
It was a lovely day – until the winds started shrieking, that is. John wasn’t feeling great this morning so we decided to have an easy day – 35K to Valle Grande. The kids could play in the river, John and I could relax in the campground… It would be a nice, easy, relaxing day. And it [...]
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Vegetarian Survival Guide to Peru
Blog: Never Ending Voyage - 16 December 2010
Was Peru better for vegetarians than anywhere else in South America? In a word, no. We still lacked the ability to be able to eat cheap, local food as it almost always contained meat.
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Eat, Write, Win 2: Peru
Blog: Aerohaveno: A Travel Blog - 15 December 2010
Earlier this month I ran a competition in which I asked my readers to relate their most memorable food/drink experiences while travelling.
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A Look Under the Hood (Fine-tuning an MFI for 2011)
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 14 December 2010
By Eric Burdullis, KF12, Cuzco, Peru Last weekend, I had the chance to attend Asociación Arariwa´s year end planning retreat out in the Sacred Valley in Urubamba, Peru. More than just spending the weekend having fun with my co-workers at the institution, I was excited to finally see what a microfinance institution (MFI) really is about. On one hand as a Kiva Fellow, I get a very in depth look at how my MFI works, but on the other hand, Kiva is still perceived as a funding source for the MFI so they are constantly “putting their best foot forward”.
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A Digital Nomad Budget: 3 Months in Bolivia & Peru
Blog: Never Ending Voyage - 14 December 2010
We have now been digital nomads for nine months. We previously shared how much we spent in our six months in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay budget, and now we look at how much three months in Bolivia and Peru cost.
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Peruvian Fusion: Andean Good Luck Charm
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 14 December 2010
If you walk through towns in the Andean region around Cusco one of the things you’ll see on many rooftops is a pair of ceramic bulls. It’s said that these bulls bring good luck, keep the house safe and ensure health and wealth for the family that lives there.
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Photo of the Week: Giant Vat of Soup at Andean Community Event
Blog: Never Ending Voyage - 12 December 2010
While volunteering at a mountain lodge near Huaraz, Peru we attended the inauguration event of the local school and community centre. We had never seen such huge vats of soup – the essential first course for any Andean lunch.
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Bewildered in Machu Picchu
Blog: MuseumChick - 11 December 2010
This man still gives me nightmares. Two years ago I was hiking in the Andes for the holidays. On the train to Machu Picchu, this festive sock headed man was on the train from Cusco to Agua Calientes. In New York City if a man is on a train wearing a sock mask you should [...]
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Lazy Dog Inn: A Mountain Retreat in Peru
Blog: Never Ending Voyage - 9 December 2010
Our bodies jolted as we bumped along the steep, rock-strewn, pot-holed, muddy track. We thought we’d seen bad roads in Bolivia, but this was something else.
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Kids Volunteering In Cusco
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 6 December 2010
Aside from getting drilled in Spanish five hours a day, doing their homeschooling/distance learning and swimming on the Cusco swim team, both our kids had regular volunteer jobs during our time in Cusco. After their Spanish class, both would walk through San Blas to their jobs at Colibri, a shelter for street kids and children of single-parents with no place to go in the afternoons. Many of the kids worked as shoe shine boys and some of the girls sold gum or woven finger puppets in the Plaza de Armas in order to supplement the family income.
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Photo of the Week: Santa Catalina Monastery, Arequipa
Blog: Never Ending Voyage - 5 December 2010
Santa Catalina Monastery is one of the highlights of Arequipa in southern Peru. The over 20,000 square meter convent dates back 400 years and is a city within a city. It’s a wonderful place to explore with brightly coloured buildings, narrow streets, pretty plazas and the original cells of the nuns.
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Drinking Chicha In The Sacred Valley
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 2 December 2010
We’d been living in Cusco for a while and I had read and heard about chicha, the fermented corn drink that is popular in southern Peru.
