Photos from trip to Peru November 2003

We went to Tambopata Reserve in the Amazon basin for the first part of our trip. This part of the trip started with a couple hour motorized canoe trip from Puerto Maldonado on the Rio Madre de Dios, a 3 kilometer hike through the Jungle and a canoe trip across Lake Sandoval. We stayed in a lodge on the Lake and explored the jungle for 5 days. When the afternoon temperature got up into the 90s, we headed for a rest in a hammock.

Click here to see more photos of the Amazon Basin.

The area called the "sacred valley" was our next area that we explored. The valley is between Cusco, the capital of the Inca empire, and Machu Picchu. There are several Incan ruins in this area and the three largest communities are Pisac, Urubamba and Ollantaytambo. The elevation of the valley is 9,000 feet so it took a couple days to get used to hiking around. For 5 days we took Spanish lessons in the morning and explored in the afternoon.

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Visiting Machu Picchu was one of the high- lights of our trip. Leslee had wanted to visit this area since she saw pictures of Machu Picchu when she was a young child.

Click her to see more photos of Machu Picchu and Aguas Calientes

Cusco was the capital of the Incan empire. This city with a population of 275,000 people is located at an elevation of 11,000 feet. When the Spanish conquered the City, they destroyed most of the Incan buildings but used the foundation stone work as foundations for new buildings. We spent several days exploring Cusco and the surrounding area.

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One of the highlights of our trip was the visit to the Vicuna Reserve on the altiplano and participation in the annual vicuna round-up (a chaccu). The reserve is at an elevation of approximately 14,000 feet. The local residents can round up and shear the vicunas once a year.

Click here to see more photos of the altiplano and chaccu.

Our final destination was the International AlpacaFiesta in Arequipa.

Click here for more photos of the AlpacaFiesta and Arequipa.