The Larco Museum is a privately owned museum of pre-Columbian art, located in the Pueblo Libre District of Lima, Peru. The museum is housed in an 18th-century vice-royal building built over a 7th-century pre-Columbian pyramid. It showcases chronological galleries that provide a thorough overview of 4,000 years of Peruvian pre-Columbian history. It is well known for its […]
Point of Interest
Señor de Sipán and the Pyramids of Sun and Moon
Yes, that is a Peruvian hairless dog in the picture above. We saw it at one of the pyramids we visited. Near Chiclayo is a world-class museum called the Museo Tumbas Reales de Sipán, or Royal Tombs of Sipán Museum. This royal Moche tomb was discovered in the late 1900’s. The excavation found a treasure […]
Into Peru
We got up early and shared a cab to Loja with Canadian biologist Duane and his retire teacher wife Susan. By 7:30 we were on the bus to Piura, Peru. It is about an 8 hour ride, including an hour at the border. Obviously, we were riding in style – When we reached the border, […]
Vilcabamba – Woowoo Town
One hears much about Vilcabamba when one is in Ecuador. It has a reputation of being a special place with extreme longevity of its inhabitants. I won’t get into this, but rather refer you to wikipedia for a full discussion: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilcabamba,_Ecuador. This reputation has brought a slew of gringos here to visit and live, particularly of […]
Riobamba
We left the enjoyable town of Tena headed for Baños. The weather wasn’t great, it was cloudy and rainy. When you say cloudy here, it very well may mean that you are actually in the clouds – cloud forests, etc. Things didn’t work out like we’d expected, as we missed our stop. One of the […]
Happy Valentine’s Day to all that I love!
I have never been a Hallmark holiday kind of gal, but today was a fantastic day for us! We are at the edge of the Amazon rain forest entrance. It is a town called Tena. I am not yet allowed to river raft or exert to much but we went on a small flat […]
The Middle of the World
We have now been gone about 4 months. It is about the middle of our trip so we headed to Middle Earth! Quito has a whole park and museum about the equator. We went with our Swedish friend Regina, who we first met in Spanish school in Cuenca, then had Christmas with, then again at […]
Mariposario (Butterfly Farm)
We went to the Mindo Mariposario, or butterfly farm. It is a butterfly research center that studies and breeds butterflies. At least half are released into the wild, but some stay back to help support the organization. It is extremely well run, and a beautiful facility. On the way in, we were able to see […]
Cloud Forest
There were moments in Mindo if I wondered if the “Cloud Forest” moniker was a PR gambit to try to put a good face on “Rain Forest.” In hindsight, it’s probably closer to the truth, even though we had more rain in our several days in Mindo, than in the rest of our two+ months […]
Market Day!
Saturday is Market Day in Otavalo. This is the largest market in Ecuador. It is actually there everyday, but on Saturday people come from afar to buy and sell their wares. This is when the tourist hype machine also comes into action, and people from all over the world show up to see what’s going […]