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PERU |
THE WONDERLAND
FOR BEGINNERS AND
THE OLD MASTERS |
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Peru, with 31.38 million inhabitants, the area of 1.25 million sq. km. (the data from 2015), the third large country of South America, after Brazil and Argentina. Peru population consists of a mixture of several cultures, first of all Indian and Spanish. Official languages are Spanish and Quechua. |
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The first associations to Peru are one of the seven new world wonders - Machu Picchu, the standard tourist route, the capital of Peru and "The Entrance to Inca Empire" - Lima, where it never rains and everything is full of greenery, the immense Anden, the Peruvian Nobel Prize Winner - Mario Vargas Llosa, lamas and alpacas, from their soft wool wonderful items are manufactured with plentiful patterns of Inca, the grains such as quinoa, chia, maca and others. And then this world of new colors, scents, tastes, habits and adrenaline, particularly when one discovers the Amazon, starts opening. Peru was visited by the Internet Serbia Travel News team.
The first meeting with Peru is Lima, the city on the rock above the Pacific Ocean, founded in 1535 by Francisco Pizarro. Even at present it is not quite clear how this fifty years old illiterate military commander managed to conquer the empire that stretched from the south of Colombia to the central Chile with the army of only 200 men, however with mighty rifles and horses the Incas had never seen before, transferring contagious diseases, such as Measles, to which the native population was not resistant, tired of five years long disputes. He called it Ciudad de los Reyes or translated, The Town of Kings. This 'Royal' city with about 12 million inhabitants and incredible traffic chaos is overfull of contrasts. From rich districts, such as San Isidro, with skyscrapers and magnificent villas, with arranged parks and even more arranged rules of behavior for 'muchachas', female servants from the local population, shopping malls and expensive restaurants, through the old, for tourists interesting Miraflores and colonial buildings, to the small multicolor houses with incredible structures, looking like favelas.
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Lima, the largest city constructed in a desert, after Cairo, is famous for the Monastery of San Francisco, Plaza de Armas, the name of main squares in all resorts of this country, the Government Palace, constructed at the place of the former Pizarro's Palace. It is not recommendable even to come closer to the fence of the Palace, then Love Park, recognizable for the explicite sculpture, many museums (Museum of Gold, Larco.), the most romantic and Bohemian district of Lima - Barranco, in which, in spite of the crowd of tourists, a popular café does not operate due to the tax problems. |
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| THE EMPIRE OF WATER, WILD NATURE AND QUIET PEOPLE |
Getting to know Peru discovering the Amazon is an incomparable experience. It starts in the picturesque resort Iquitos by embarkment to the luxurious ship Aria, owned by Aqua Expeditions company, which selected just Peru, the spring of the Amazon river, for the starting point of the cruising. Throughout the year, it is hot here (the rain period is from December to April) and the water level enables entry by powerful boats to the channels and by-channels of this wonderful, dangerous, charming, fast and demanding river, 6,992 km long, along which the conact to nature is quite near. The Nature Reservation Pacaya-Samiria is an astonishing empire of flora and fauna and enables enjoying the seducing swimming out of pink dolphins, playing monkeys, the night sneaking to caymans with the floodlights directed into their hot eye pupils, glutany of the voracious and dangerous piranhas, which are quite harmless served as food, macao perrot showing off, bird singing, discovering the hidden.
The crusing on the Amazon understands also the entry into the deep rain forest and meeting the local tribes, such as Bora and their lifestyle, habits and items they make from natural materials and crossing the suspension bridges, like those from Indiana Jones films and the visit to the incredible green market in the Nauta place and food tasting you do not even know it exists and permeating with dangers, beauties and wildness of the banks where quiet and smiling people live. The travel through the Amazon is - the life travel or the travel through life.
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| GASTRONOMY - FIREWORKS FOR SENSES |
Gastronomic specialties are a mixture of the local, but also Spanish, Japanese, Chinese and Italian influences. The basic national food is Ceviche, consisting of a piece of fresh fish or shells in marinada of red onions and lime fruit with the addition of boiled rice with vegetables. The drinks are Chicha, fermented corn juice, the light green Inca Cola, incomparably more popular than its inspiration Coca Cola, and Pisco, a type of grape brandy. Wine and beer sorts are just for bon viveurs.
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THE SPIRITUAL AND MAGIC POWER OF THE
DISAPPEARED CIVILIZATION |
From Lima, Peru for beginners, but also the old masters understands the flight to the monumental city of Cusco at the height of 3,460 meters above the sea level. The former capital and spiritual center of the Inca Empire, later a Spanish colonial town, it is the center of the region called the Sacred Valley of Incas - Valle Sagrado. The air in this city, being under the UNESCO protection due to many archaeological findings, is thin, it is more difficult to breathe or walk. Thus, the tourists are awaited already at the airport with a basket with coca leaves for chewing, for which they say it has nothing to do with the effect of the powder manufactured by the same plant processing. Beside the leaves, the offer includes also the coca tea (mate de coca), coca bonbons, coca chocolate, coca juice. Cusco, once called The World Navel, from which Pizarro's men took away hundreds of kilograms of gold, as the ransom for the captivated Inca Emperor and trophy, is full of historical values and a mixture of cultures. It consists of narrow plated streets, colonial buildings, the main square - Plaza de Armas, a Cathedral from the 17th century, many comfortable hotels in the houses of former rich people, as well as many women and children in picturesque garments, with the small lamas - alpacas in the arms - ready for a photo with the tourists for 1 Sol, the local currency.
The largest archaeological findings of Peru - the remnants of the fortresses Pisac and Ollantaytambo, and, first of all, MACHU PICCHU, are located just in the Sacred Valley, about a hundred kilometers from Cusco. Machu Picchu - the Old Peak is the best preserved town of the Inca Empire. Its base, the small town Aquas Calientes (thermal springs) is reached by railway, as the only transport vehicle, travelling by comfortable Vistadome panoramic wagons. The Incas started the construction of Machu Picchu in 1430 in the best period of its empire and then misteriously left it about a hundred years later. The details of this vanishing are not famous to the historians and archaeologists at present, either. It was forgotten and lost for the outside world for centuries, until 1911, when it was discovered by coincidence by the archeologist Hiram Bingham. Machu Picchu, the town constructed by the Incas among the clouds, not using mortar, but relying to precisely cut blocks and geometry, from which there is a great look to the curved flow of the river Urubamba and coca plantations, remained alsmost intact to present, in spite of many earthquakes. Intact is also the energy streaming, wrapping, conquering passing through and fills all those who happen to be here. Many people believe this is one of the strongest energy fields in the planet, having outstanding spiritual and magic power.
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