Thursday, February 21, 2013

South Peru

Peru is amazing, plain and simple!
a lot easier to travel than Bolivia, it offers great landscapes, a fantastic backpackers atmosphere, and amazing food!
South Peru is such a diverse place... from the desert to the andes to pacific beaches, here you can find everything!

The mysterious Nasca lines

The best part was discovering the Nasca lines, huge lines in the Nasca desert made by Nasca civilisation as a tribute to their gods (at least that's one of the interpretations...)
The best part was flying a small Cessna airplane and try to identify the amazing shapes they built!





Trapezoid

The whale

Astronaut

Needle

The monkey

The monkey

The Colibri / hummingbird


Colibri

Condor



Hand and Tree






Arequipa, a colonial jewel

At the feet of the Mixti volcano, Arequipa is a stunning little town, with amazing colonial buildings, including the breathtaking 'andalucian' convent of Santa Catalina... 













Santa Catalina convent












The Colca canyon...









Saturday, February 16, 2013

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca, the heart of South America, is the mythical birthplace of the founders of the Ica civilisation. At over 4000m on the sea level, the lake and the Andes create magical landscapes, and crossing from Bolivia to Peru from the lake border is a unique experience. Today, only a few families live in the lake's islands: the Urus, that I visited, still live on moving islands made of bamboos, still using rudimentary tools to cook and live their lives...