It's the multiple layers of great civilisations which makes Peru so fascinating. You can wander around colonial cities which have preserved the legacy of the Spanish conquistadors, visit the ancient Incan capital of Cuzco, explore the lost city of Machu Picchu and ponder the enigma of the Nazca Lines.

Coming from Copacabana in Bolivia at lake Titicaca next stop was Puno, a small village placed at Lake Titicaca but on the Peruvian Side.

Even though it has become overcommercialised, the Floating islands of the Uros people is a unique phenomenon. Always a small tribe, they began to isolate themselves from the Collas and the Incas. About 300 people live on the islands. To create their 'islandhomes', they havest the totora reed, which grows in the shallows of Lake Titicaca, and place the reed in many layers. The layers rot away from the bottom and are replaced on top.

You don't have to be in Peru too long to realise that the 'New World' had a rich and complex cultural life thousands of years before Pizarro turned up wearing funny clothing. All of this exists in a country with some of the most spectacular and varied scenery in South America. The Peruvian Andes are arguably the most beautiful on the continent and the mountains are home to millions of highland Indians who still speak the ancient tongue of Quechua and maintain a traditional way of life.

Cuzco,the old imperial Inca capital, being both the administrative and religious centre of the empire is the starting point for the famous Inca Trail, which is the most popular hike in whole South America where you end up at the 'Lost City'.
Cuzco was seized by the Spanish in 1533 after the murders of the Incas

The Inca Trail 88km by train out of Cuzco starts the trail, when you want to hike for 4 days. Cactus The very start of the Inca trail...   A hummingbird One ot rhe fist ruins on the way Looking into the Valley of the Andes   Some lamas Still a long way infront... It's foggy at this altitude A cosy little spot in between the greens   Another ruin -looking like an amphietheatre

Peru's climate can be divided into two seasons - wet and dry - though this varies, depending on the geographical region. The coast and western Andean slopes are generally dry, with the summer falling between December and April; during the rest of the year, the garúa (coastal fog) moves in and the sun is rarely seen. In the Andes, the dry season is from May to September, while the wet season takes up the remainder of the year. On the eastern slopes of the Andes, the drier months are similar to the highlands, though the wet season (January to April) is more pronounced.

When to Go Peru's peak tourist season is from June to August, which is the dry season in the highlands, and this is the best time to go if you're interested in hiking. Travellers do visit the highlands year-round, though the wettest months, January to April, make trekking a muddy proposition. Many of the major fiestas occur in the wettest months and continue undiminished in spite of heavy rain. On the coast, Peruvians visit the beaches during the sunny months from late December through March, although few beaches are particularly enticing. The rest of the year, the coast is clothed in mist. In the eastern rainforests, it naturally rains a lot. The wettest months are December through April, though travellers visit year-round since it rarely rains for more than a few hours and there's still plenty of sunshine to enjoy.

Lima and Cuzco are the most expensive places in the country. If you're on a tight budget, you can scrape by on around $US20 per day, but if you want to stay in modest hotels and eat out at restaurants, you'll have a better time on around $US50 a day. The easiest currency to exchange is US dollars. Other currencies are only exchangeable in major cities and at a high commission. Money can be changed in banks, casas de cambio, first-class hotels, or with street changers. Casas de cambio are usually the easiest places to change money. Street changers, who hang out near banks, never offer better rates than the best bank rate and have been known to cheat travellers so are best avoided.

Taxi drivers are not tipped - bargain hard beforehand and stick to your price. Local guides should be tipped between US$3 and US$5 per day. Bargaining is accepted and expected in markets.

The verdant Amazon Basin, which occupies half of Peru, is one of the world's top ten biodiversity `hot spots' - a species-rich area of tropical rainforest that will make your head spin when you start to learn about its ecology.

And the coastal deserts, with their huge rolling dunes, farmland oases and fishing villages, are under appreciated by travellers but offer the opportunity to get off the Gringo Trail in a big way.

But you don't have to be a zoologist, an anthropologist or a mountain climber to enjoy Peru, all you need is a keen eye, a love of landscape, an interest in history and a very good money belt.

Facts

Peru is in western South America and shares borders with Chile (to the south), Bolivia (south-east), Brazil (north-east), Colombia (north) and Ecuador (north-west). It has three major regions: a narrow coastal belt, the wide Andean mountains and the Amazon Basin. The coastal strip is predominantly desert, but contains Peru's major cities and its best highway, the Carratera Panamericana. The Andes comprise two principal ranges - Cordillera Occidental and Oriental - and includes Huascarán (6768m), Peru's highest mountain. To the east is the Amazon Basin, a region of tropical lowland, which is drained by the Maranon and Ucayali rivers. Bird and marine life is abundant along Peru's desert coast, with colonies of sea-lion, the Humboldt penguin, Chilean flamingo, Peruvian pelican, Inca tern and the brown booby endemic to the region. Common highland birds include the Andean condor, puna ibis and a variety of hummingbird. The highlands are also home to cameloids such as the llama, alpaca, guanaco and vicuña, while the eastern slopes of the Andes are the haunts of jaguars, spectacled bears and tapirs. Peru's flora contains a number of hardy and unique plants, including patches of Polylepis woodland found at extreme heights. The vast wealth of wildlife is protected in a system of national parks and reserves with almost 30 areas covering nearly 7% of the country.

Lima, Peru's capital (pop: over 7 million), is overcrowded, polluted, noisy and often has wretched weather. Nevertheless, the inhabitants are friendly and hospitable, opportunities for dining and nightlife are ample

At the main plaza in Lima

and the city has a great selection of museums. A project is now underway to restore the city's colonial centre, so Lima may be a lot lovelier in the near future. Attractions include the Museo de Oro del Peru, which has numerous artefacts of gold, silver and precious stones, and the Museo

Nacional de Antropología y Arquelogía, which is noted for its excellent exhibits of prehistoric Peru.Churches such as San Francisco (famous for its catacombs) and Santo Domingo (circa 1540)

provide a welcome respite from the outside clamour. Lima's many markets, including Polvos Azules, overflow with consumer goods and handicrafts.

There are also plazas, lovely colonial buildings and a zoo. Inexpensive accommodation can be found in the city centre. The suburb of Barranco has a number of cheap restaurants and live music venues and is very popular with backpackers. The suburb of Miraflores has the city's best stores, restaurants and nightspots.

Warning Lima and traditional tourist areas such as Cuzco and Machu Picchu are considered safe, but care should be exercised at all times.

The following photographs derive from the Huaraz Area (North Peru)
	Me and a perivian guy on tour in the Huaraz Mountains

The Huaraz Area is harsh and dry climate

Though poor conditions prevail, it's beautiful sceenery.

Chan Chan was build around 1300 AD and contained about 10,000 dwellings. the royal dead were buried in mounds containing a wealth of funerary offerings. The whole city was decorated with designs moulded into mud walls and ther more important areas were layered with precious metals. the Chimú were conquered by the Incas around 1460, but the city was not looted until the Spanish arrived. The Chimú capital consisted of nine subcities, called the Royal Compounds. Today you only see ahuge area of crumbling mud walls, some dekoratedwith marvellous frieze. The treasures are gone...