“President Sleeping” Ferdinand Botero Turns out that Ferdinand Botero, the artist with who’s sculptures we had been so enamored with in Medellin, made extensive donations of his works and his personal collection to the National Bank of Colombia. The collection contains works from many of the greats of the 20th century, as well as nearly […]
One of the chief attractions in Bogota is the Gold Museum. We find it interesting how the central banks of all of the south american countries have taken on cultural pride. They all have museums of money. In Colombia, they also have the largest collection of gold artifacts. This is a beautiful museum,very well done, […]
What do you get when you have a town located away from major trade routes in a high altitude valley of semi-desert terrain, and with no mineral deposits nearby to exploit. A town that has undergone little development in the last 400 years. As a consequence, it is one of the few towns in […]
Paraiso Secreto! Secret Paradise! Everything we would want to relax and get away. Look at this pool: Here is what it looked like: Alas, our dreams weren’t quite met. We set out from Cartagena, following the instructions to the letter. The boat stopped at Playa Blanca and let some people off. Then it […]
We loved Cartagena! Once we got to it. Didn’t really like overnighting in the Bogota airport. Cartagena is a modern port city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast. At its core is the walled Old Town, with 16th-century plazas, cobblestone streets and colorful colonial buildings. The climate is tropical – hot and humid. It is also is a […]
We came up the 5 hour trip to Cusco from Puno on one of the luxury buses. As we drove into the city over miles of rocky dirt road I remember thinking to myself that this seems more like every other Peruvian city than the cultural capital of the world (which they tout in signs […]
Aguas Calientes is the gateway town to Machu Picchu. It is the only way to get there unless you are willing to walk the Inca Trail. It is claimed that the only way to Aguas Calientes is the train, and there are no cars in town. This may be the case, but somehow they did […]
We headed out on another tour early in the morning. Day 1 – Sacred Valley to Aguas Calientes. Day 2 Machu Picchu. I know we’ve talked about how tired we are of seeing ruins. Having said that, southern Peru is kind of ground zero for ruins, and there are some pretty good ones. The Sacred […]
If the Inca had a football team from Moray, they probably would have been called the “Aggies.” From Wikipedia: Moray is an archaeological site in Peru approximately 50 km (31 mi) northwest of Cuzco on a high plateau at about 3,500 m (11,500 ft) and just west of the village of Maras. The site contains unusual Inca ruins, mostly […]
Some people think only of Colca Canyon when “Colca” is mentioned. Our guide dissuaded us of this, explaining that Colca refers to the canyon, a valley, and a river. We took a tour from Arequipa. On the way we went through Reserva Nacional Salinas – Aguada Blancas which contains a vicuña protection zone. There are four camelids […]
Sounds like it truly was an excellent adventure. Thanks (...)
If only we had realized you had to go to the north island (...)
We were at the Iguana Resort and had the stingrays touch (...)
Sigh. I'm envious - it looks
THANKS, you two! It was fun to live vicariously and (...)