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Overhead flies the original hang glider - a giant condor. Its three and a half metre wingspan lends it an unsurpassed grace and flair, as it rides the thermal currents with effortless ease. It may not be the grandest canyon in the world, but the Colca Canyon (over twice the depth of America's Grand Canyon) is a place of sublime beauty. |
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The Amazon amazes in its ever-changing majesty.... and the best way to travel the River is in majestic style, aboard the expedition cruise ship the MV Explorer. A unique feature of Explorer trips is the onboard inflatable Zodiacs, sturdy rubber dinghies with outboard motors that can negotiate the narrowest tributaries. |
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Towering above Arequipa, the recently active volcano Mt Misti, 5,822 metres (19,100 feet) high, looks strangely out of place. At the foot of the mountain, Arequipeños go about their daily lives in sub-tropical conditions, despite the devastation caused by the earthquake of early 2001. |
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The manic movie director Werner Herzog back in 1982 made a film about the fictitious and equally eccentric Irishman Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, whose dream of an opera house (based on the famous Manaus Opera) in the Peruvian jungle somehow necessitated the moving of a ship across a mountain. Fitzcarraldo's memory is still perpetuated in the Amazonian city of Iquitos. |
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The vibrant Miraflores precinct is one of Lima's redeeming features |
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The ancient Inca city of Cusco attracts rave reviews from all who visit there. Nominated by UNESCO as a "centre of world patrimony", Cusco stuns with its sheer beauty, with baroque Spanish architecture layered upon Inca and pre-Inca foundations. Yolanda van den Berg, from the Netherlands, was deeply influenced by Cusco - so much so that she has established a foundation to provide a refuge for some of the street kids of the city. |
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It seemed like the ultimate desecration - a motor car rally in the Sacred Valley, homeland and heartland of the once-mighty Inca Empire of Peru. But when the cars had left, the peace returned. The superbly scenic Sacred Valley runs over 100 km from Huambutió to Ollantaytambo, and contains ruins to rival those of Macchu Pichu. |
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The Yavarí, the very first passenger steamer on Lake Titicaca (the world's highest navigable lake, on the border of Peru and Bolivia) has been restored to her former glory, and is due to re-commence service on the Lake early in 2007. |
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