Last year myself and few friends went to Peru. Why this country? One of our good friends is half Peruvian and was willing to take us for that amazing trip to show what this country has to offer.

The flight was really long with short stop in Miami to change the plane going to Peru.

Finally after 25! hours we got to our friends Auntie and I have to mention right away, we haven’t met such a lovely, warm and welcoming person in a long while. We’ve stayed in ‘Aunties’ house for few days to explore the capitol of Peru – Lima, the city is stunnig, especially the coast.

Lima

The bus trip around the city will stay in my mind and heart for a long time, amazing architecture, crazy drivers, taxis that looked like they have hit dozens of zombies each and the coast that is simply breath-taking.

Paracas

Shortly after we went little over 160 miles south of Lima to Paracas – the capital of the Paracas District in the Ica Region in Peru. A small port town catering to tourism, Paracas serves as the jumping point for tours to Islas Ballestas and to Paracas National Reservation.

Our guide helped us to get inside of the fishermans bay in which we could see how hard it is to collect all the fish of the boats with a really troubling pelicans flying all over the place trying to get any fish they can.

In the gallery below, you will find pictures from the early morning, where sky is really overcast, we took a speedboat trip around the island, about 45 minuts of great fun. Animal spoting where you will see birds, pinguins and sea lions. After that we’ve decided to walk around and see what else there is to do in Paracas.

Little rest and we were heading to another adventure – Nazca Lines – a group of pre-Columbian geoglyphs etched into desert sands. Covering an area of nearly 1,000 sq. kilometers, there are about 300 different figures, including animals and plants. Composed of over 10,000 lines, some of which measure 30 meters wide and stretch more than 9 kilometers.

This is one of the things I’m glad I’ve done but will definetely never do again! And it’s not because it wasn’t interesting or exciting but because of constant change of directions by a pilot to let people in the little 10 person airplane see the figures. The G-forces are making you dizzy, light headed and your stomach to turn over 10 times a minute. Thank God the landing was smooth.

Cusco

After spending few days in the capitol and Paracas, it was time to move on or should I say fly again. Luckly this time the flight was only few hours and g-force wasn’t an issue :)

Next stop – Cusco, a city in the Peruvian Andes set at an altitude of 3,400masl !

The first thing we had to do after leaving the plane was taking a deep breath. At this altitude your body is responding in completely different way, lack of oxygen, weak muscles and a feeling of tiredness. Peruvians are used to it, but they always have a pack of sweets. Coca Candy is made of actual coca leaves that help with the altitude sickness.

In Cuzco another relative to our dear friend waited for us. After short trip in taxi ( this time a lot nicer than the ones in Lima ) we went for a quick lunch before sightseeing.

I actually didn’t mention anything about the food yet, maybe due to the fact that I actually did not take a single picture of food there… I regret this a lot, but I can definitely say the food was absolutely amazing!

Peruvians tend to put chips as well as rice on the same plate with the dish, many of them!

Being there I had to try Alpaca meat and of course Guinea Pig, but definetely the dish I will always remeber is Lomo Saltado – a stir fry that typically combines marinated strips of sirloin or other beef steak, with onions, tomatoes and other ingredients, served with fried potato slices and rice.

Did you know that there are 55 verietes of corn in Peru? More than anywhere else on the Earth!

Saksaywaman, Qurikancha, Maras Moray and Secred Valley

Saksaywaman is a citadel on the northern outskirts of the city of Cusco.

Located on a steep hill that overlooks the city, the fortified complex has a wide view of the valley to the southeast. Archeological studies of surface collections of pottery at Saksaywaman indicate that the earliest occupation of the hilltop dates to about 900CE.

The best-known zone of Saksaywaman includes its great plaza and its adjacent three massive terrace walls. The stones used in the construction of these terraces are among the largest used in any building in prehispanic America.

Qurikancha, originally named Inti Kancha or Inti Wasi, was the most important temple in the Inca Empire, dedicated primarily to Inti, the Sun God. It was one of the most revered temples of the capital city of Cusco.

Maras Moray is an archaeological site in Peru approximately 50 km northwest of Cuzco on a high plateau at about 3,500 m and just west of the village of Maras.

The purpose of these depressions is uncertain, but their depth, design and orientation with respect to wind and sun creates a temperature difference of as much as 15 °C (27 °F) between the top and the bottom. It is possible that this large temperature difference was used by the Inca to study the effects of different climatic conditions on crops.

Looking at the Andes.

Panorama

The Sacred Valley is a region in Peru’s Andean highlands. Along with the nearby town of Cusco and the ancient city of Machu Picchu, it formed the heart of the Inca Empire. Stretching roughly 60 kilometers, it’s an area of fertile farmland and Spanish colonial villages like Pisac and Ollantaytambo. Pisac is known for its Sunday handicraft market and hilltop Incan citadel.

Salinas De Maras

This is a salt mine you HAVE to see with your own eyes! The bus trip to this place is also very exciting! Driving down the cliff with no bariers literally meter of the edge can give you the worst thoughts, but once you get to the Salt mine it all gets better.

Almost all the ponds are less than four meters square in area and none exceeds thirty centimeters in depth. I have tried the water and yes, it’s very salty! :)

The Jungle

A piece of advice. Before enter the jungle, buy the best mosquito repellent you can get.

These little flying bloodsuckers will get to you as soon as you show a little bit of your skin.

Apart of that, the jungle is really beautiful.

Most Peruvian territory is covered by dense potataorsa forests on the east side of the Andes, yet only 5% of Peruvians live in this area. More than 60% of Peruvian territory is covered by the Amazon rain forest, more than in any other country except Brazil.

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is an Incan citadel set high in the Andes Mountains in Peru, above the Urubamba River valley. Built in the 15th century and later abandoned, it’s renowned for its sophisticated dry-stone walls that fuse huge blocks without the use of mortar, intriguing buildings that play on astronomical alignments and panoramic views. Its exact former use remains a mystery.

This place is just magical, every step you take, every corner you turn you’re amazed by the architecture of this ancient city. When we got to the top of the mountain (around 6am) we have been blessed to see the sunrise over the mountains, the swallows flying between us and this inexplicable sense of being united with the nature. It’s very quiet, peacefull and in some sort of Holy.

People

Traveling through this fascinating country we’ve meet few people. Probably the most memorable visit was at the house of Quechua people who were creating clothes, suvenires and jewellery from the wool. The whole process how it’s being made was explained to us and it was incredible how easy it was for these locals to create different colours from natural minerals.

One last thing…

On the last day, when we got back to Lima, before the departue back to England, one last time our Friend, my Girlfriend and I, went to see the amazing sunset on the coast.

We’ve also done the paragliding and trust me, doing it on the coast, watching the sunset and the cliffs of Lima was something I will never forget and especially my fiancé, because shortly after the paragliding I proposed and she said YES!! Very Happy Ending to an Amazing Adventure!

Hi Dear Friends! I’ve decided to start a blog. I will try to post as often as possible and hopefully I will be able to write new post every month. There are few events that happened in the past that I would like to share with you all so stay tuned for some interesting stories! I hope you will enjoy reading my blog and will come back to it regulary. If you do so, please share the posts with your friends and comment on the blog. I would greatly appreciate all the feedback, especially now, when I’m really new to the ‘blogging’ business. Thanks!

In the first post few snaps from my recent trip to London. Enjoy!

Heron tower on the left.

I’ts been the first time we actually went inside of this building, only to find an amazing place to rest and have a coffee or something quick to eat. The place we went to is on the 40th floor and it’s called “Duck&Waffle” – WOW! you think… what an interiors and design!

The coffee was great and with the views outside the window even more enjoyable.

The architecture in this City is just amazing. I love the old part of the London but I have to admit, all the new constructions are very unique and you admire it as much as the most popular Big Ben or The Tower Bridge.

View at the The Shard and the City Hall

30 St Mary Axe (widely known informally as The Gherkin and previously as the Swiss Re Building) is a commercial neo-futuristic skyscraper in London’s primary financial district, the City of London. It was completed in December 2003 and opened in April 2004. With 41 storeys, it is 180 metres (591 ft) tall and stands on the former sites of the Baltic Exchange and Chamber of Shipping, which were extensively damaged in 1992 by the explosion of a bomb placed by the Provisional IRA in St Mary Axe, the street from which the tower takes its name.

The Street – Bow Churchyard

Intersting Fact : There are almost 21,000 licensed taxis in London. ‘Black Cabs’ come in 12 different colours. The name comes from the device – the taximeter – which was used to measure the distance travelled, which was invented in the 1890s. If the orange light above the driver is off, it has a passenger and won’t stop (so waving and shouting won’t make any difference).

St Paul’s Cathedral

St Paul’s Cathedral, London, is an Anglican cathedral, the seat of the Bishop of London and the mother church of the Diocese of London. It sits on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London.Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. The present church, dating from the late 17th century, was designed in the English Baroque style by Sir Christopher Wren. Its construction, completed in Wren’s lifetime, was part of a major rebuilding programme in the City after the Great Fire of London.

The cathedral is one of the most famous and most recognisable sights of London. Its dome, framed by the spires of Wren’s City churches, dominated the skyline for 300 years. At 365 feet (111 m) high, it was the tallest building in London from 1710 to 1962. The dome is among the highest in the world. St Paul’s is the second largest church building in area in the United Kingdom after Liverpool Cathedral.

Natural History Museum

The Natural History Museum in London is a museum of natural history that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The Natural History Museum’s main frontage, however, is on Cromwell Road.

The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 80 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, paleontology and zoology. The museum is a world-renowned centre of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture—sometimes dubbed a cathedral of nature—both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast which dominates the vaulted central hall. The Natural History Museum Library contains extensive books, journals, manuscripts, and artwork collections linked to the work and research of the scientific departments; access to the library is by appointment only. The museum is recognised as the pre-eminent centre of natural history and research of related fields in the world.

Just Hold On, We’re Goin’ Home

It’s time to head back home! One way to do it is Tube and then the Train! Great London King’s Cross railway station with it’s amazing architecture.

King’s Cross railway station is a major London railway terminus which opened in 1852 on the northern edge of central London. In 2005, a £500 million restoration plan was announced by Network Rail, it was approved by Camden London Borough Council on 9 November 2007. The plan includes a thorough restoration and reglazing of the arched roof of the original station and the removal of the cramped and congested 1972 extension, to be replaced by an open-air plaza, scheduled for completion in 2013.

And this would be the end. Thank you for reading, and making it till the end. I really hope you enjoyed the post and if so please comment and share with your friends as much as you like!

See you soon!