Have You Heard From Laura?

Klaus dancing with the chickens in Huaraz In case you were wondering where all those yummy guinea pigs come from…We found this guinea pig slum on our roof in Huaraz. Through the miracle of email, Klaus (from the Solar de Uyuni trip) and I stayed in touch and met in Huaraz to trek Llanganooko Santa […]

Greeting Machu Picchu at 7am Restoring walls at Wayna Picchu, looking down on Machu Picchu From the tippy top of Wayna Picchu Yes, Machu Picchu is one of the coolest places I’ve ever been in all the world. No, I didn’t hike the Inca trail. In days gone by, you could rock up in Cuzco, […]

Corpus Christi festival, Cuzco Just another day in the never ending Corpus Christi Festival. Here, St. John the Babtist and San Felipe somebody duke it out on the plaza in front of the Irish pub and Chinese restaurant. My first day in tourist dollar dependent Cuzco is also the first day of festival season. The […]

Ollantaytambo is a very pretty little town set next to more impressive terraces and temple ruins. The road to Machu Picchu ends here and you continue by train or hike it. Ollantaytambo has been around for some time. The buildings along the narrow stone streets are built on Incan foundations. There is an old Incan […]

Inca ruins at Pisac The Sacred Valley around Cuzco is excellent. Don’t miss it. The little town of Pisac is home to beautiful and puzzling Incan terraces, a good market, and at least one great restaurant. How did the Incans construct these massive terraces and forts so high up this mountain? How did they move […]

reed canoe, Lago Titicaca The floating islands in Lake Titicaca near Puno, Peru are a popular mochilero (backpacker) destination. Based on reports from travelers who visited the floating islands, spent the night with a floating family, and went to a folk party where they were required to dress in local dress and dance, I had […]

Local lady on the plaza in Copacabana After a very nice time treking around Sorata, I set my sights on Lago Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world and also the birthplace of the Inca civilization. The plan was pretty simple, from Sorata get a bus to Huarina and there change for a mini […]

I first heard of Sorata from this guy Bob who I met way down south in Puerto Natales, Chile about 3 months ago. Bob was from Jackson, Wyoming and knew South America quite well. For Bob, Sorata is tops, but otherwise, no one has even heard of Sorata. Sorata is about 100 km north of […]

Today I visited the pre Incan ruins of Tiahuanaco. This archeological site is pretty decimated. The Tiahuanaco civilization existed 1500 bc to 1200 ad. It was the Tiahuanacans who domesticated the llama, developed very successful irrigation techniques in the high dry altiplano, and developed 300 varieties of potatoes. Tiahuanacans worshipped the sun and moon and […]