Tambopata National park in Peru is a beautiful green paradise, comprising 1.5 million acres of sub-tropical rainforest of the Madre de Dios and Puno regions.

Tambopata is internationally acclaimed as one of the most bio-diverse areas on earth. It is particularly famous for its monkeys, giant river otters, black caimans, capibaras, tapirs and hundreds of bird species.

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“Last week it was confirmed that Peru Rail will be running the route from Km82 to Machu Picchu Pueblo as normal from April 1st. Work on the train tracks - which suffered serious damage due to heavy rain falls and mudslides during the last week of January this year - will be continuing throughout February and March in order to meet this deadline. However, once the line is open services will be running with a lower capacity than normal – we are expecting train services to transport just 1,000 passengers per day as opposed to the normal 2,500 daily passengers. This reduced capacity is likely to cause some problems due to the already large list of people who were unable to travel to Machu Picchu in February and March and as such have rescheduled their trips for April and May. It is important that clients understand that all services to Machu Picchu during April and May are likely to be very busy and/or fully booked. One solution will be to operate more car tours to Machu Picchu in order to take the pressure off the train services. Priority will be given to those passengers whose tour reservations are already confirmed.
Looking further ahead, we expect train services to be running as normal from Ollantaytambo by May and from Cusco itself by June.”

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Prolonged periods of serious rain have led to severe flooding and landslides in the province of Cusco. Although much of the press has been focused on Machu Picchu, other low lying areas as the Sacred Valley area have also been affected. The city of Cusco is operating as normal - virtually no damage was suffered within the city. All flights to Cusco are operating and most road links too. Key damages in the surrounding areas include all road and rail links with Aguas Calientes, which left 2,000 tourists stranded in the town. All tourists have now been evacuated safely, but Machu Picchu remains accessible only by helicopter. Therefore all train excursions and treks to Machu Picchu are closed until further notice. The Inca Trail will not be open until 1st March at the earliest, and all other tours and treks will open once a transport link between Cusco and Aguas Calientes is established. Please not that all other tours - independent of Machu Picchu - are running as usual.

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Paracas is a coastal town in Peru, at a four hour bus drive from Lima , that offers some of the most beautiful photographic scenes in my most recent memory. You can take a bus ride to the national reserve to observe the desert, museum, and restaurants located within secret places along its rocky coast. You can also take a boat ride to observe the islands that host millions of birds and thousands of sea lions. It makes for a very romantic scene for couples and friends.
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DOS MANOS takes you to a unique folkloric festival, high up in the Andean Montains, in the small village of Paucartambo, in the south east of Peru.  Paucartambo means: flowered tavern.
During the month of July there are incredible sunrises in this area, well worth a visit.

But there is another reason to visit Paucartambo this month: on July 15th and 16th of July Paucartambo celebrates the festivities of La Virgen del Carmen, or  Mamacha Carmen. There is a great gathering which initiates this big festival on the plaza de Armas with music bands play and different choirs sing in Quechua. This way introducing beautiful choreographies which tell parts of Peru’s history.

On the main day of the celebration there is a big procession to bless all the participants and to scare away the demons. Special dancers called Saijras then show of by doing some acrobatic stunts on roof tops which date back from the Inca and colonial era.

Come  with us and visit these two wonders of the wonderful historic city of Paucartambo with us!! more…

AND LEARN HOW THE INCAS BUILT A BRIDGE!
This is an absolutely unique tour. The Q’eswachaka bridge is located across the Apurimac river, at about 13.000 feet, in Canas province. This imponent bridge spans 120 feet, and is rebuilt every one or two years as communal effort by all the local indians of the region. About 700 men and women form the communities Huinchiri, Ccollana come to Q’eswachaka to the Festival of the Construction of the Bridge. The weaving and construction techniques have passed from generation to generation since the bridge was first built by the Incas, probably in the 15th century. Impressive scenery, unique possibility to be inmersed in local Peruvian culture. more…

Transportation system in Peru is a great mystery. How do they find their way in this chaos is still a great unknown.

In Lima there are different means of transport, and so we have: buses, combis, colectivos (private cars that transport individuals), taxis, motor-taxis (half motor-bikes half rickshaws). But the prevailing means of transport in most of the cities is a bus. This concerns also Cusco, where I live. Combis and taxis have conquered streets of this city.

Combi is a very interesting phenomenon. It is a van, which according to residents has enough space for about 24 people with approximately 14 (small!) seats! Just squeeze and problem is solved! Well, at least you get to know each other more J Combis are owned by private companies and there are plenty of them. In a combi there is usually one person on board (except for a driver) who manages the car and shouts out loud the route (he or she usually calls the names of the streets with an enormous speed, so you better listen carefully!). When 5 combis come at once and stop at the same “paradero” (bus stop) you get a nice havoc. But everyone knows its way, so there is no problem. The only confused ones are tourists, who gaze with amazement. There are no timetables at the stops, but this was smartly solved. You can always ask the person managing the combi if it passes through a place you want to go to… provided you know some basic Spanish.

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After a few days enjoying Cusco and its surroundings, we were ready to see one of the world’s most impressive cultural sites: Machu Picchu. Early in the morning we took the backpacker’s train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes, a small town, full of hotels and restaurants, and famous for its hot baths. We had planned to go to Machu Picchu the next day, so on this first day in town, we walked around the village and visited the baths. As my purpose was to sunbathe and not to have a swim, the mosquitoes found pleasure in my pale skin. A tip for all visitors: put on anti- repellent, and loads of it!!.

But my itching legs could not retain my excitement for our journey to Machu Picchu. The bus ride, uphill to a height of about 2.350 meters above sea level, takes about 30 minutes. It is recommendable to take the bus early in the morning, in order to arrive at the site as early as possible, around 6.00 or 6.30 am. As our official tour was going to start at around 8.30, we had some time to discover the place on our own. We decided to get the tickets for the hike to Huayna Picchu (“young peak” in quechua, as opposed to old peak / Machu Picchu), for which there are only a limited number (400) per day given out.

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300 chefs create a 6, 8 Ton Cebiche for the certified Guinness World Record

Peru on Sunday reclaimed the Guinness world record for the largest cebiche after 300 chefs made almost seven tons of the country’s signature dish, a citrus-marinated seafood appetizer, enough to feed 40,000 people.

All it took to recover its place as world record holder for the largest cebiche, an honor it had lost to Mexico in 2007, was five tons of white fish, lots of lime juice, onions, chili pepper and salt. To contain the cebiche, organizers used an aluminum container about 30 meters (yards) long, which was set up inside a sports center in Peru’s main port, which is part of greater Lima. The cooks who prepared the cebiche, most of them graduates of Lima cooking schools, spent the night cutting and cleaning the fish so that they could actually prepare the dish in a little over an hour on Sunday morning.

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They call it a phenomenon of some sort and I was surprised that I did not know about this sooner than I did.  After living in Peru for over a year you get to a point where you feel pretty knowledgeable on what is around, and certainly what is worth seeing.  I did not know about Tres Cruces or the awe-inspiring sunrise that I was in store for.  It was a bit of an adventure in and of itself just to get there.  Located a little over 4 hours outside of Cusco, journeying to this site is an adrenaline rush all on its own.  The road structures are still a bit unsteady with one-way roads that are not completely paved.  I survived by closing my eyes through most of the ride, and kept my focus on the sunrise that I knew was at the end of this treacherous road.

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