Doing the Camino de Santiago Your Way The little nagging fear about embarking on a pilgrimage is, at least in my case, that everyone else on the trail will be a whole lot more religious than I am. So it is with some pleasure that I pick up yet another book about someone walking the…
Search Results for: machu picchu
Convenience in Cusco
Our stay in room 114 at the San Agustin International is short and functional. In Peru to see Machu Picchu, we stay in Cusco a couple of nights after our great adventure on the mountain. After a couple of pisco sours at the El Arcangel restaurant—and a mysterious, yet tasty, green purée for dinner, when I’d…
A Romantic Dinner in Cusco
By the last evening of our whirlwind adventure in Peru, the Brawny Sherpa and I are running short on time and energy—despite our new affection for coca tea and our hopes of entering a time warp to extend our brief stay here. Low on energy, we walk less than a block from our hotel where…
Taxis around the World: Peru
There are so many ways to see a city, on foot, on bicycle, via taxi ride. Some interesting vehicles for hire are pictured in an occasional Taxis around the World series. Here, a three-wheeled vehicle in Pisac, Peru. — Lori Tripoli Going to Peru? You might like these posts: Peruvian Effigy To Peru in a…
Peruvian Effigy
A little disconcerting to this North American visitor are the colorful effigies hanging from trees and lampposts in southern Peru. The Brawny Sherpa and I are in Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu at the end of February, when carnival apparently extends beyond Mardi Gras. The dolls, I am told, are part of the…
The Worst Sorts of Falls
Contemplating Colonialism, Missionaries, Politics, Priests Fresh from a trip to Peru, I watch The Mission, a 1986 film about missionaries in South America and their efforts to convert indigenous people to Christianity. Starring Jeremy Irons as a nonviolent priest and Robert De Niro as a former slave trader new to the religious fold, politics—a treaty…
Leading a Farm-to-Table Life in Peru: A Sustainability Conundrum
Is True Sustainability Sustainable? I equate striving for sustainability—the practice of not depleting the Earth’s resources—with achieving a certain harmony. On my way to Machu Picchu, I can’t help but observe how the indigenous people in Peru live. The distance from farm to table here sometimes is no more than a few yards. Textiles are…
In Praise of Pachamama
Experience the tranquility of a session with a shaman in Peru, in praise of pachamama, or Mother Earth
To Peru in a Whirlwind
Overthink, and You May Never See Machu Picchu Is Peru safe for tourists? While sipping some coca tea in a small shop in Pisac, I finally have a moment to rest—having taken two planes and a bus ride to get to where I am, on my way, generally, to Machu Picchu for a long weekend….