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10 Travel Destinations In Peru Besides Cuzco And Lima

by Jessica Festa on

When planning a trip to Peru, many people focus on the two popular cities of Cuzco and Lima, unsure of what else to include on the itinerary. The reality is, adding some lesser-known yet worthwhile cities into the mix can really enhance a trip to this Andean country.

Mancora

You can easily waste weeks in this laid-back beach town without even noticing it. Mancora is a great place to visit if you enjoy surfing, beach sports, morning yoga on the shore or just doing nothing. The town is also an excellent home base if you’re interested in visiting the fishing village of Cabo Blanco. This is where the famous author Ernest Hemingway used to hang out, drink Pisco Sours and pen classics like “The Old Man and the Sea.”

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Visiting Pisco will allow you to visit one of the most beautiful and ecologically diverse places in the world, the Islas Ballestas. Commonly referred to as the poor man’s Galapagos, these small islands feature seals, penguins, blue-footed boobies, guanay guano birds and other marine wildlife. Additionally, Pisco is close to Paracas National Reservation, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the only marine reservation in Peru. Often considered one of the richest yet most bizarre ecosystems, you’ll find animals like penguins, sea lions, marine cats, black ostrich, dolphins, purple crabs and chita fish. For a bit of history in Pisco, make sure to visit Tambo Colorado. It’s an ancient adobe-style Inca fort that’s been well preserved, with mazes and various rooms to explore. You’ll also see the red, yellow and white painted walls from Inca times.

Trujillo

This city in northwestern Peru is full of history and culture. Visit the well-preserved ruins site of Chan Chan, which is considered the largest pre-Hispanic mud brick settlement in the Americas. Its origin dates back to the beginnings of the first millennium A.D. When in Trujillo, there is also an interesting archaeological complex called El Brujo. It dates back to the Moche culture from 100 B.C. to 650 A.D., and is thought to have been used for religious ceremonies. There is also an interesting museum about the site worth checking out. For more Moche history, travelers to Trujillo can also visit the Moche Pyramids, Huaca del Sol and Huaca de la Luna. Literally translating to “Pyramid of the Sun” and “Pyramid of the Moon,” this is where it is believed priests carried out bloody human sacrifices.

Puno

While there isn’t too much beauty in the actual city of Puno, you will find a lot of culture. Indigenous markets, authentic eateries serving three course meals for $1 and an array of unique transportation modes like go-karts and tuk-tuks abound. The main reason to go to Puno, however, is for the boat trips to the more beautiful areas of Lake Titicaca. Visit the man-made floating islands of Uros, made entirely out of reeds, while meeting the indigenous Uru people. You can also take a boat ride out to the traditional collectivist island of Taquile, known for its untouched beauty and locals who make handwoven textiles and clothing. These handicrafts are said to be of the highest quality in Peru. Moreover, the island has a unique method of tourism where cultural programming and homestays are the focus, which allows you to really get to know the people and their way of life.

Huaraz

Huaraz is a hiker’s paradise, and if you love unusual landscapes, this is a city you must visit on a vacation to Peru. It’s in the Cordillera Blanca region, an area of Peru’s Northern Sierra. Trekkers can go to the “House of Guides” for complimentary trail information. If you’re looking for a lengthy hike, go from Santa Cruz to Llanganuco. This four- to five-day excursion reaches 15,583 feet and allows you views of Huascaran, Peru’s highest peak, beautiful valleys and crystal lakes. Along with hiking, visitors can enjoy mountaineering, rock climbing, biking, markets, archaeological sites, museums and parks.

Chivay

The main reason to visit the town of Chivay is to take in the natural beauty of “the world’s deepest canyon,” Colca Canyon. At 13,650 feet deep, it is more than twice as deep as the Grand Canyon. Hike the volcanic landscape, view ancient cave art and take in the unique scenery of the area. In Chivay, you’ll also be able to enjoy natural hot springs, an astronomical observatory and cultural markets.

Huanchaco

If you love surfing, the beach town of Huanchaco is the perfect place to add to your Peru itinerary. Surfers of all levels can enjoy the good wind and swell direction, with swells ranging from 3 feet to 8 feet or more. It can also be interesting to learn about the ancient fishing tradition that is still practiced today. You’ll notice numerous “cabalitos de torta,” or “little reed horses.” They get their name from the way they are straddled by fishermen when taking their nets into the water to catch fish. Interestingly, these boats are made of the same reeds used by the people of the Uros Islands to create their man-made floating islands. For a bit of culture, visit the town center of Huanchaco with colonial architecture, historic churches and peaceful squares.

Iquitos

Located in the Amazonas region of Peru, Iquitos offers opportunities to visit the largest tropical forest in the world, the Amazon Jungle. Adventurous travelers can take boat rides to view wildlife such as crocodiles, anacondas, monkeys, boas and more. There’s also trekking, visiting indigenous communities and bird watching on the Amazon tours. Other experiences to have in Iquitos include visiting butterfly farms, monkey sanctuaries, manatee orphanages, animal rescue centers and national reserves.

Nazca

The main reason people visit Nazca is to see the famous Nazca Lines, the ancient geoglyphs in the Nazca Desert. This UNESCO World Heritage Site, which was believed to have been created by an ancient Nazca culture between 400 and 650 A.D., can be enjoyed on land or by viewing the site overhead from a helicopter. The Nazca Lines, however, aren’t the only reason to visit this city. There’s also hiking, sandboarding, a vibrant Sunday market, the Pardeones Ruins and Chauchilla Cemetery, which is full of mummified bodies.

Arequipa

The second most popular city in Peru, Arequipa lies in the Andes Mountains with excellent views of El Misti Volcano, which you’ll be able to climb if you wish. Walking around, you’ll notice Spanish-style buildings from colonial times made of pearly-white volcanic rock. Because of this unique architecture, Arequipa’s historical center was granted UNESCO World Heritage status in 2000. Other activities of interest in the city include visiting the traditional neighborhood of Yanahuara, exploring the Santa Teresa Convent & Museum of Colonial Art and trekking through the Salinas y Aguada Blanca National Reserve.

[Above images via Jessie on a Journey; Gallery images via Big Stock, AgainErick, and Jessie on a Journey]

Canon Offers Free Photography Workshops In US National Parks

by Kraig Becker on

Camera manufacturer Canon has once again teamed up with the American Park Network to offer free photography and videography workshops in U.S. national parks. These workshops, which include video for the first time, will be available in a variety of locations and offer park visitors a chance to learn new skills, or hone existing ones, in some of the most photogenic environments on the planet.

The Photography in the Parks program has already been wrapped up in the Grand Canyon, Zion and Yosemite National Parks this year, but new opportunities begin in other parks as early as today. For example, workshops in Yellowstone run from July 21-31 and are held three times daily. Anyone wishing to participate can join in the fun at 8:30 a.m., 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. at the Old Faithful Lodge. Participants are encouraged to arrive 15-30 minutes early. Other upcoming workshops will be held in Grand Teton National Park (August 1-2), Rocky Mountain National Park (August 5-11) and Acadia National Park (August 18-29).

Instructors will be on hand to provide tips on how to get the most out of your digital camera or camcorder. They’ll also have a variety of Canon products available to test as well, including their wonderful EOS DSLR cameras, EF lenses, PowerShot point and shoot and Vixia camcorders. Those expert photographers will demonstrate fun and creative ways to capture the exact photo you’re trying to achieve.

For more information check out the Photography in the Parks website and start making your plans to sit in on one of these classes soon. This is a great opportunity to get a free workshop that could improve your travel photography skills.

How We Tolerate Travel: A Weekend Trip By The Numbers

by Grant Martin on

I’ve been working on a theory for a little while now about why some habitual travelers continue their journeys, and I’m starting to think that it’s got to do with the level of anguish involved in being on the road – or rather, our tolerance for it. Hipmunk uses a style of this data on their search engine called “agony,” which is a measure of suffering incurred by lower leg room, higher baggage fees and a variety of other variables that can make airline travel miserable. That level of duress can be applied to other experiences as well.

To apply this to experiential travel, it’s first useful to think about the influences presented to any person in motion. While external influences like class of service, traffic and weather affect every passenger, internal factors such as purpose (i.e., business, leisure, wedding or funeral), health and state of mind can vary by each person. Add up the external influences in parallel then multiply that number by each person’s perspective, say, their Coefficient of Travel Tolerance (COTT), and one can produce a relative comparison between each experience.

So someone with a low coefficient of travel tolerance (i.e., someone with a high tolerance for difficult travel) could handle a journey in a chicken bus just as well as someone with a high coefficient (i.e., someone who hates leaving home) could handle a flight in international first class.

Wanting to quantify part of this theory with actual data, I ran an experiment on my weekend trip home for a wedding this past June. The itinerary I concocted was complex but not difficult: leave work on Friday, take the train home to visit my parents in West Michigan that evening and then pick up the train again the next morning for a wedding in Ann Arbor. On Sunday I would take the last flight out of Detroit to return quickly back to my home in Chicago.

I broke down the journey into several categories and separated my time out in groups of five minutes. Travel, whether by car, bus, bicycle, airplane or train was one section, while leisure, work, wedding, eating, sleeping and “other” filled out the rest. A few sections overlapped; for example, the meal consumed on the Amtrak train between Chicago and Niles counted as both travel and eating time (category: meals, dinner, prepared).

Breaking down the data by category at the end of the trip, I found that 25.33% of my time was spent traveling, 28.97% was sleeping, and 9.26% was spent eating and working respectively. Of my time in transit, 44.1% was spent on trains, 23.8% was spent in a car and 18.5% was on foot, while 7.3% of my time was in an airplane, 4.7% was on bicycle and 1.6% was on a bus. Of those in a car, 36% was spent in my father’s Mazda MPV 6 while 55% was spent in my friend Aaron’s BMW 3.28xi. At the wedding, 8.9% of my time was spent in the bouncy castle.

For me, that 25.33% of time in transit for a weekend visiting family and friends was entirely worth my investment. I held a few meetings with colleagues, worked on the train, watched the news with my parents and told stories with Aaron and his wife.

Others might find that 25.33% too high to justify the trip. Whether it’s work or family commitments, high stress levels, reality television or budgetary, for many, a short weekend spent traveling the world is often not worth the destination.

On the other side of the spectrum, there are plenty of people who would be comfortable spending most of their weekend on the road. Mileage runners, people who book and fly itineraries solely for the valuable miles, often fly across the country or the ocean just to spend an hour in the airport and return home. Those travel ratios can be as high as 90%.

Now combine that time on the road with one’s Coefficient of Travel Tolerance. My journey worked well because I have a high tolerance and only needed to spend 25% of my time on the road. The mileage runner works because he’s got a really high tolerance despite being on the road almost exclusively. Our will to travel dictates how complex our itineraries become.

As it is right now, my tolerance is high because I languish in the art of travel and in the problem solving in getting from point A to B. I enjoy staring out the airplane window, people watching and drinking coffee from train station cafes. I’m happy on the road, and will continue to be for the near future. Ask me again after I have kids.

Zach Anner And Reddit Launch New Online Travel Show: ‘Riding Shotgun’

by Grant Martin on

Remember Zach Anner, the funny guy with cerebral palsy that launched a travel show on Oprah’s Network last year? Our friend and Internet metagod Alexis Ohanian reached out yesterday to let us know that they’re moving the show to the Internet in a new series called “Riding Shotgun.”

Funded by Mr. Ohanian’s uncorporation Breadpig (they’re also behind the xkcd book and sell awsomesauce), Riding Shotgun will cull all of its ideas from reddit, where users will be able to vote on destinations as well as activities in each spot. The show will visit eight of the top voted destinations, and right now Montreal, New Orleans, Denver and San Francisco are all in a heated battle for the top spot.

The result will be a multimedia mixture of user-submitted videos, maps and a full YouTube series. In their words:

Think Anthony Bourdain, but instead of a crotchety indifference to everything, we’ll have a crotchety exuberance for everything with more fun, more wigs and more wheelchairs.

We can’t wait for the result. Check out the show’s details over on Mr. Anner’s site or vote on destinations over on reddit.

10 Essential Destinations In Mexico

by Jessica Festa on

While many think of Mexico as a country that’s too dangerous to visit, there are actually many beautiful, safe and historically rich cities worth making a trip for.

While Tulum features one of the most well preserved ancient civilizations in the country, Copper Canyon features an extreme adventure park inside its ravine. Additionally, Guadalajara boasts magic villages, UNESCO World Heritage Sites and 684 historical monuments, while Guanajuato has an entire underground road system and an active mining community. These are just some of the experiences to be had in these worthwhile cities in Mexico.

For a more visual idea of these essential Mexican destinations, check out the gallery below.

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[image via Bjorn Christian Torrissen]