Peru Things to Do Tips by mad4travel

Juanita the ice maiden

If you are going to Arequipa stop by to see the ice maiden. She is a mummy found in ice at the top of a mountian, a sacrifice to the gods.

check out :http://www.ucsm.edu.pe/santury/
The website is in Spanish only. Its easy to find in Arequipa

Website: http://www.ucsm.edu.pe/santury/

Nazca Lines

The Nazca Lines are an engima. No one know who had built them or indeed why.

Since their discovery, the Nazca Lines have inspired fantastic explanations from ancient gods, a landing strip for returning aliens, a celestial calendar, used for rituals probably related to astronomy, to confirm the tribes who made up the population and to determine through ritual their economic functions held up by reciprocity and redistribution or, a map of underground water supplies.

The Nazca plain is virtually unique for its ability to preserve the markings upon it, due to the combination of the climate (one of the driest on Earth, with only twenty minutes of rainfall per year) and the flat, stony ground which minimises the effect of the wind at ground level.

With no dust or sand to cover the plain, and little rain or wind to erode it, lines drawn here tend to stay drawn.

These factors, combined with the existence of a lighter-coloured subsoil beneath the desert crust, provide a vast writing pad that is ideally suited to the artist who wants to leave his mark for eternity.

You can fly over the Nazca lines in a light aircraft. However if you don't like small planes, turbulence, or tipping over to "Have a good look". I would really recommend not doing it

As much as I'd always wanted to see the lines I really hated the flight and had my eyes shut most of the time as I hung on for grim death!

My photos came out pretty bad too! This is the monkey - although you'd hardly know it!

Website: http://www.go2peru.com/webapp/commerce/command/ExecMacro/packa_details.d2w/report?prnbr=PAQ38&sCodigo=1

Jungle Critters3-Turtles

I love this picture of turtles sunning themselves on the river. Its a shame one of them is pointing the wrong way, it would have made a great photo to get them all in line.

Jungle Critters 2-Bats

These are bats hanging upside down under a log having a snooze. Don't know what kind of bats they are....

Jungle Critters no1-Capybara

As a Guinea Pig fan I was keen to view their larger relative the Capybara.
They are about the size of a pig and live in dens along the river bank. The group we saw had babies about the size of a large guinea pig.

At night we went out in the boat and found some on the river bank. I expected them to run away but we got up real close and they were very curious about us.

I thought about taking one home but I think my piggies would not be too happy sharing a pen with them as they'd probably get sqwished!

Jungle Critters 5-Miserable toad

This toad was about as big as a dinner plate - It was huge! (and probably poisonous).

Not the prettiest of creatures....

Jungle Critters4-Caymen

Taken on a night caymen hunt with the poor thing a bit startled by the boat spotlight.

Not the best photo, but hey, how often do you get to see Caymen in the wild?

Salt Pan Art

This was a bit of an unexpected find on the way to Urubamba.

These salt pans were formed by harnessing a stream of hot salty water coming out of the mountainside.

Depending on where each terrace was you got lots of different colours and grades of salt. Each terrace was flooded and the the salt was left to evapourate out.

I really enjoyed taking photos of this, it was like a piece of modern art!

Tambopata Reserve

The Tambopata Reserve is a 3.7 million acre reserve in southeastern Amazonian Peru created in 1990.

This reserve protects the biological diversity of the entire watersheds of the Tavara and the Candamo Rivers and most of the watershed of the Tambopata River.

Over 1,300 bird species (including 32 parrot species - 10% of the world's total), 200 mammal species, 90 frog species, 1,200 butterfly species and 10,000 species of higher plants are protected within this reserve. (altho you would'nt know as most of them run away when they hear you coming!)

This was the lodge I stayed at in the reserve. It is a 45 min bumpy bus ride from Puerto Maldonado and then a 2 hour boat trip, so it pretty much is in the middle of nowhere.

It was very comfortable considering, altho' there was no electricity, there was hot water, and the huts were clean and bug free.

The food was excellent, the guides were very good and infact there seemed to me more opportunity to spot wildlife sitting in the bar than yomping thru the jungle!

Grumble in the Jungle!

Am I the only person in the world that didn't like the Amazon jungle in Peru?

I've been in jungles before-Guatamala and Cambodia to name but two but always to see temples and ruins.

The jungle here is , well, just trees!

I know you are mean to see wildlife but most of it runs away cos it hears you coming. So you get left with looking at spiders and stick insects, not really my cup of tea.

Anyway, I did get a few wildlife pictures which I have added to my tips but on the basis that it was hot, humid and knackering it would have been easier to see them all in a zoo.

Bah humbug, grump over. I think I'll stick to my first love of deserts in future!