Perú 2006

Everywhere agents attempt to lure you into restaurants with enticements like free Pisco sours, glass of wine or soda pops.

Several large archeological sites are located within Lima. I like Lima very much because it is a bustling city with an incredible number of museums and archeological points of interest.

Another large archeological site in Miraflores

Note the surfers. A restaurant is located on the pier.

The highway from the coast to Huaraz winds endless as it rises from 0m to 4000m

The mine is at the top of the hill in the center of the photo.

Many Peruvian restaurants serve truchas (trout).

This in the original which is in the Mus. Archeologia ... in Lima.

This is a vine. The slide shows both the blossom and fruit.

A relative of the lupine.

On the hike to Lago 69

Mt Yerupaja at 6634m is the second highest mountain in Perú. It is located in the Cordillera Huayhuash immediately south of the Cordillera Blanca.

The stones which are massive, such as on the previous photos, were hauled from a quarry high up on a hillside on the other side of the river. The photo shows a detail of indentation used in hauling these stones.

This fountain is one of the most beautiful we saw in Perú.

It seems everywhere Christians destroyed Inca temples and build churches on the foundations. Chinceros is one particularly egregious example. Machu Picchu avoided this fate as the conquistadors were unaware of its existence.

In addition to this switchback there are several coming out of Cusco.

In Perú manual labour is often used, such as in hauling concrete, where in North America machines would be instead.

Putukusi is a peak between Machu Picchu and Aguas Calientes.

We hiked to the top of Huayna Picchu. There is now a daily quota on the number of hikers.

Sorry, but this is the internet so internet views of Machu Picchu are mandatory.

Also a "Machu Picchu with llama" picture is mandatory!

We nearly froze to death waiting for the sunrise!

If the walking palm is not in a sunny spot, it grows new trunk roots in such a way that the entire tree gradually moves to a better place.

Ceiba (Kapok) trees are much taller than the surrounding forest.

Notice the rhododendron leaves encircling the trunk.

This mushroom sprouts, then rots and disappears all in one day.

Cocao is native to Perú although now it is grown mostly in Africa and elsewhere. The pod has a delicious edible white flesh. However, chocolate is made by taking the purple seeds and fermenting them.

Heliconia is related to the banana.

FIX naming

Capybaras are the world's largest rodents.

If there had been a picture of the red rumped tarantula on Wolf then there would also be a picture of Wolf in serious medical trouble.

If there had been a picture of the bullet ant on Wolf then there would also be a picture of Wolf having been bitten and stung and in serious pain and unable to walk for the next six hours.

Army ants are a sight to see - a long string of them running like mad.

In villages you get put in jail for a day if you do not do your mandatory community service, or if you are rude and drunk. No comment about why Joan was trying out the jail.

Even rank amateurs can have very good aim with blow guns.

Linnea Smith runs the Yanamono Medical Clinic and Nancy Dunn runs the library. It was through Linnea that we managed to find the birth family.

This is the place in Lima where Nico stayed from age 6 weeks to 12 weeks before coming to Canada.

Huascaran is the highest and Yerupaja is the second highest mountain in Perú and one of the highest outside the Himalayas.