Deisy and I had to run in order to catch the double decker bus.
“Double decker bus in Lima, like in London?”, I asked her when she told me about it.
“Oh, yeah! Open-top double decker buses, indeed”.
“Then, we should go for it as soon as possible”.
“Chévere!”, she called out joyfully.
My feet are fastened on the surfboard. My arms move vigorously, and I can sense the balance just in the middle of my body. My waist and hip turn smoothly and quickly in order to face the big swells. I ride left and right breaks and barrels. Just before the moving ridges batter its pointbreak on the shore, I plunge in the water. Sergio, the instructor, cries out to me: “great, now, go on”. “Sure thing”, I shout at the top of my lungs.
I lift my head from bed when my cell alarm fires off at half past five in the morning. Somebody claims dreams come true?
“To the left, Sergio, to the left! , what are you doing? , the foam is going to screw you up, man…to the left!”
I hardly hear him. He is out there, but I am not able to see him. I barely tell the contrast between the dark blue sea and the white horizontal line which is growing higher and nearer. Pulling my arms with strength, I feel my shoulders ache. “I am gonna make it, yes, yes, come on, man!”.
I am dead wrong. The wave is just above me, and my board is not straight to the wall of water, but sideways, so there isn´t any hope for me. I hold the board tightly when the foam embraces me with such force that it makes me spin, and I lose grid of my board. I just disappear under the cold water.
After seconds which seems to be a lifetime, my head gets off the water. I gasp and cough. Naively, I swim towards the board instead of pulling the line or cord attached to my ankle, but it is too late: another wave. ¡Splash!
For God’s sake, what am I doing here?
Lima, february the 19th, 1564. A man is about to die.
It is a warm summer after midnight, and a masked man is getting down a stepladder from a balcony. Suddenly the stepladder breaks, and the man falls to the ground. Five neighbors come over and start beating the man. When a sixth neighbor arrives, the man is already dead. The man´s name: Diego Lopez de Zuñiga.
This would have been another love affair story, but the man was the count of Nieva, fourth viceroy of Peru. The story appears in the “Tradiciones Peruanas”, written by the Peruvian author Ricardo Palma.
Balconies were silent witnesses of this kind of stories during much of the Spaniard colonial period in most of Peru, but especially in Lima.
My flight to Lima was due at 7:35am, february the 24th. I had to be at the airport one hour before, but I left my bedroom at 6:40am. I didn’t want to lose my flight! The Choquechaca street was wet, and the sky was cloudy because it rained at night. It was a cold morning, and I felt it as I only wore a couple of BVDs, one T-shirt, a couple of shirt-sleeves and a light coat. My boots and black jean were tidy. I only carried a black rucksack.
I asked a public transportation driver how long it’d take to the airport. He replied it was about twenty minutes. No way! It seemed that taxi drivers smelt i was in a hurry as they wanted to charge me six and even seven nuevos soles. That would be the price you must pay if it is a pick-up service. I realized my mistake and instead of asking to take me to the airport, I said that I wanted to get down just in front of the airport where, I remembered, there are some blocks of houses. Four soles, one driver told me. Got it! Gotcha!
At that early hour, the taxi only took nine minutes to get there. As I didn’t want to sound as a liar, I walked to the right rather than to the left after getting down the taxi. I had some minutes to spare so, just as quickly, I headed for the very cliff of the river Huatanay half block away from the avenue. I took advantage of my loniless to “picchar”(suck in quechua) my last coca leaves. !Oh, coquita leaves, please, let me have a good flight! My boots and jean got dirty due to the mud and the dew from the flowers on my way. Nevermind, i am going to be in Lima soon. Soon? Read the rest of this entry »
Travel Agency in Peru - Peru Tours.
There is nowadays a new approach to discover or rediscover the Lake Titicaca, an approach by which your adrenalin, stamina and strength will combine with the striking beauty of the scenery and nature as well as with the lake´s inhabitants and their unique culture and traditions. It is time to explore the lake by kayaking.
Kayaking on Top of the World
As you head for the shore, you will notice the contrast between the white beach and the blue horizon across the lake with an astonishing backdrop of mountain range with clear sky and clouds.
The last year, friends went to Cusco, and whenever she called them they said to me: Wilbert you have q to come! you cannot be lost this! and good me I did not want it to lose and overnight I was there… Step on Cusco, you step on the sky, from that moment, my life changed…. They were all the right, it was a beautiful place, and the people who inhabited it still more.
I knew people wonderful, and among them to Car it, a Canadian with a very special angel, now my better friend, and also I had the opportunity to know a project called “Yanapay Village”…. one of reasons x which would return… One week later arrived the moment for starting off, and since I returned to Lima, in the only thing that thought it was in returning… but the great question was: Someday I will be able to return…
Cuzco is really a charming city. It has little more than 200,000 inhabitants and a special touch. Their architectonic wealth and the colorful one of their streets, their clothes and their inhabitants turns it a small jewel that does not have to be let visit. For many, it is only one city of step or lodging to visit Machu Picchu, but really it is much more. It is worth the trouble, mainly, to take a walk by the district of San Blas, where they are the stores of the craftsmen. That yes, with patience because the height makes our steps heavier than customary, and because we will find several hills in our route. He is recommendable, when arriving, to take kills of cocaine to move away altitude sickness and to take with calm the first hours is accustomed. From there, already you can cross the city, the small factories of crafts (there is one wonderful one in the Avenue of the Sun), to know the traditional dances
El Santuario Historico de Machupicchu es un patrimonio cultural y natural que cuenta con 35 grupos arqueologicos, siendo el principal de todos la ciudadela de Machupicchu; esta alberga al 10% de la flora y al 20% de la fauna existente en el Peru.
Machupicchu es el Parque arqueologico mas conocido y espectacular del Continente, considerado por la UNESCO como Patrimonio Cultural de Humanidad. Ademas de las maravillas arqueologicas, posee una flora exotica con mas de 180 especies de orquideas, asi tambien, una fauna abundante teniendo entre ellos al oso de anteojos y al gallito de las rocas (rupicola Peruvianis) ave nacional.
Se cuenta de Machupicchu que pudo ser el refugio de las nustas o virgenes del sol, por lo cual fue Ciudad Sagrada, esta teoria se da porque a la llegada de los españoles, los gobernantes Incas, con el fin de evitar mas latrocinios, hicieron escapar a estas mujeres escogidas a un lugar secreto en los Andes, resultando ser este lugar la ciudad de Machupicchu; esta teoria se explica tambien por el hallazgo de 107 restos humanos, de los cuales el 68.9% eran restos de mujeres. Una tercera teoria plantea que Machupicchu fue la ultima Capital del Imperio y que Vilcabamba fue la ultima ciudad a donde se retiraron los incas al mando de Manco Inca en el ano de 1536 cuando fue vencido por los espanoles luego de sitiar el Cusco.
El nombre Quechua de esta ciudad se debe a la toponimia de la montaña que se denomina Machupicchu, palabra que descompuesta quiere decir Machu = anciano, Picchu= montana. Esto vendria a significar montana anciana, pero el nombre de los restos arqueologicos propiamente dicho pudo ser Markanay.
El Santuario Historico de Machupicchu tiene un area de 32,592 hectareas, la altitud es de 2490 msnm tomando como referencia a la Plaza Principal del sitio arqueologico, por hallarse en una zona subtropical posee una temperatura que oscila entre los 8º a 22º C. Los meses mas lluviosos van desde Diciembre hasta Abril.
El Acceso se da por via ferrea (112.5 Km - 4 horas aprox), desde la estacion de San Pedro en Cusco, hasta la estacion de Aguas Calientes y luego se asciende en Bus por carretera hasta el Santuario Historico de Machupicchu lapso que dura 30 minutos aproximadamente.
La ciudadela de Machu Picchu constituye, de lejos, el más importante de los atractivos turísticos del Cusco. Se ubica a 3 h de viaje en tren desde la ciudad, aunque también se puede llegar a ella en helicóptero (30 min) o a pie (4 días por el Camino Inca). Descubierta en 1911 por el explorador norteamericano Hiram Bingham, esta ciudadela es considerada una de las más extraordinarias muestras de arquitectura paisajística del mundo.
Enclavada en la cima de una montaña que domina el profundo cañón del río Urubamba, en plena selva tropical, constituía a la vez centro de culto y observación astronómica y hacienda privada de la familia del Inca Pachacútec.
Consta de dos grandes áreas: una agrícola, formada principalmente por andenes y recintos de almacenaje de alimentos; y otra urbana, en la que destaca la zona sagrada, con templos, plazas y mausoleos reales trabajados con un exquisito nivel de perfección. Las escalinatas y canales de piedra labrada son una constante a lo largo de este singular sitio arqueológico. Frente a la ciudadela se levanta el cerro Huayna Picchu, al que se accede por un empinado camino de piedra.
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• Los mejores hoteles en españa los encontraras en hotelesenespana.org
• Los destinos para los viajes a peru en: hoyviajesaperu.com
• Conoce lo mejor de cusco peru en: hoycuscoperu.com
• Disgrtua de los mejores hoteles en lima en: hotelesenperu.com
• Conoce los mejores viajes a argentina en: hoyviajesaargentina.com
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