It’s a cloudy June day, and Señora Gregoria Flores meets us under the canopy where the gardeners scheme. This is where they plan their attack: The tilling and composting, the seeds sprinkled in neat rows, the watering. They will deploy beat-up old spades and rusty picks and leaky hoses. They…
Just as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 traumatized many people in the United States, Peru’s war on terror in the 1980s and 1990s continues to traumatize Peruvians. And just as in the United States, the final chapter of the war has yet to be written.
Should Peru’s government continue its ban on genetically modified organisms? Should it limit the development of squatter communities? Should Peru continue to pay motorists to retire older vehicles from Lima’s streets? Is tourism a great thing for Peru? And are Peruvians and North Americans basically the same at heart?…
One of the leading Peruvian literary figures we learned about was Ricardo Palma, whose own life was as fascinating as his stories. We got a sense of the author as a man and Peruvian by visiting his home – now a museum – in the Miraflores district of Lima.
Mention the “War of the Pacific” in the United States and most people will think about the epic World War II battles that pitted Japan and the United States and allied powers. Mention “War of the Pacific” in South America and most people will recall the 19th century war between Chile,…
What makes Machu Picchu so remarkable? It was not known to the Spaniards who invaded and took over the Inca Empire in the 16th century. No major events or battles happened there. It remained unknown to the outside world until 1911, when local families led a North American explorer to…
After Cusco, we made our way through the Valle Sagrada, or Sacred Valley of the Incas, so called because it contained stunning lands and properties that belonged to the emperor himself. We started the day in the ancient Inca capital of Cusco, visiting the central plaza – one of the…
On our second day in the Cusco area, students woke up in the quiet of mountain hamlets. In the morning we hiked the trails of a beautiful Inca site called Tipon, where water from an underground spring was channeled with such precision that it still runs and never changes in…
On our first day in Cusco, we explored some of the many Inca sites in the area. Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire when Peru was invaded by a small band of Spaniards in 1526. The Incas ruled an empire that extended thousands of miles, encompassing parts of…
We broke up our time in Lima with a week-long trip to the Cusco area, including a journey through Peru’s Sacred Valley to visit historical sites from the time of the Incas and finishing with a day at the incomparable Machu Picchu. First we spent two days in the beautiful…
