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PERULINE |
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PERULINE e-mail: info@peruline.de |
NEWSLETTER MAY 2005 |
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Dear friend of Peru, Here in Lima the summer is wearing away, the winter is about to begin
and the city is soon to fall under its characteristic mist. But in the
Peruvian highlands now starts the dry season which means sun shining
all day. And of course, in our “partners” category you will find
new offers of our“peruline”-partners. Yours
Guano- The "White gold of Peru" or
Economic boom thanks to seabird crap
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| Links: |
| For a trip to the Islas Ballestas we recommend our partner Hotel
Las Dunas in Ica for your accomodation. |
 AT
A GLANCE |
In
order to stop the disappearance of Peruvian alpacas the Peruvian government
decided together with alpaca-experts to implant special microchips into
the ears of the alpacas.
In the last years, a special trade of alpacas has developed. That´s
why many alpacas end up in Australia and in the U.S.A., where their sellers
gain many thousand of dollars due to the high price of alpaca-wool. But
at the same time, the gene pool of the resident Peruvian alpacas is seriously
modified because only the animals of minor value stay in the country.
Therefore the quality of the wool depreciates.
With these microchips, experts hope to keep track of the alpacas, to avoid
their disappearance and prevent the price decline in the wool-market.
The
glaciers play an important role for the farmers in the Peruvian Andes,
because they retain water in the winter and guard it for the dry seasons.
But at the same time the glaciers´melt water poses a threat. Scientist
discovered that the glaciers in Peru are melting in an unbalanced way
and originate huge melt water lakes in the mountains.Their studies revealed
that in the last 30 years, 25% of the whole Peruvian ice surface has disappeared
due to different factors like volcanic activities and global warming.
The Andes are an area where earthquakes occur quite frequently. These earthquakes always threaten to disrupt the glaciers, huge pieces of ice fall into the melt water lakes. In the worst case, huge flood waves of mud run down the valley causing death and destruction. Many small villages in the mountains have been washed away in the past due to this phenomenon.
To prevent future catastrophes, satellites have been positioned in outer space. These satellites note every single change and alert us early enough to take precautions.
A team of scientist discovered numerous new plants in the region of the Peruvian-Ecuadorian border. 5 new species of currants, 5 new species of the passion flower and at least 15 new species of nettle plants. Apart from these plants, scientis assume that there are still many more undiscovered species.
TOP| OUR
PARTNERS |
Learn
Spanish in a different way in the Cusco Spanish School. You will not only
find excellent teachers but also many great activities in this school.
In May and June for example, two of the most beautiful celebrations of
Peru take place in Cusco.
The celebration of Corpus Christi is celebrated in the whole country,
but it is at its most impressive in Cusco. A procession of 15 statues
of saints and vestals arrives in the formation of a star at the cathedral
of Cusco. The Plaza de Armas is always full of people trying to get a
look at the statues of the saints and anxious to receive the sacrament
of Corpus Christi.
About a month later, on the 24th of June, the shortest day of the year
in the Southern hemisphere, Cusco is the setting of the" Inti Raymi".
Inti Raymi is celebrated in honor to the sun, which was the most important
god of the Incas. Anybody who wants to behold these amazing spectacles
and combine it with useful Spanish lessons should travel to Cusco in the
months of May and June.
| Links: |
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To know more about the Cusco Spanish School just visit our website or write us an e-mail to info@peruline.com. |
Our partner Domiruth offers a new trek -Lares Valley is one of the best
treks in Peru, it is also a great alternative for those wanting to experience
the beauty and rich culture of the Andes by taking the less-traveled route.
Authentic encounters with Quechua communities and the spectacular scenery
that surrounds them give these treks a wonderful blend of tradition and
splendor. To remoteness of the area has allowed its people to preserve
traditions of llama and alpaca herding, potato cultivation, and colorful
weaving dating back to the Incas, also you will have the opportunity to
see thatched stone houses, inside the houses you’ll see guinea pigs
running loose.
This trek is a wonderful blend of tradition and untouched nature.
| Links: |
| For further details about this or other treks visit our homepage or send an e-mail to info@peruline.com. |
The
Organisation APREC and our partner hotel Laguna Seca supported three young
Belgian tourism experts, who developed an interesting project together
with a group of researchers in Cajamarca.
To gain insight in the traditional lifestyle of rural communities, which
settle along the old Inca Trail "Qhapaq Nan", the researchers
lived and worked together with families of these communities.
The result of this project was an interesting exposition in March 2005
in Cajamarca.
The director of the National Institute for Culture (INC) Jorge Levon Zevallos
as well as the director of APREC Carlos Díaz Miranda approved that
this project was really important for the region of Cajamarca.
Both of them pointed out that the Belgians came all the way from Europe
to Peru at their own expenses just to work for this project.
They also stressed out their hope that many more similar projects in other
regions will follow.
| Links: |
| More Informations about APREC you can find here.
And for further details about our partner Laguna Seca just visit
our homepage. Do not hesitate to contact us.
info@peruline.com for any further questions. |
| FROM
THE REGIONS |
Cusco,
city of monuments, myths and legends is deemed to be one of the most popular
tourist destinations in the world.
The city features a lot of beautiful attractions, including the impressive
panorama of the Andes which gives this city its special atmosphere. Thanks
to many cultural sites the ancient Inca-metropolis offers lots of ways
of tracing the civilised Inca-culture.
Maybe you always wanted to know how the Incas were able to cultivate their
food in these hostile mountains and to provide the entire Inca empire
with aliment. Agriculture in the Andes, especially at a large scale, posed
a real challenge to the Inca engineers, due to the fact that the highlands
are not flat areas which would have been useful for agriculture. The Inca
faced these dificulties inventing the terraced fields, which you can find
until today in the proximity of Cusco, and of course in other parts of
the Andes.
To support these terraced fields the Incas built thousands of metres of
stone walls at an incredible altitude of 3000-4000 metres a.s.l. Thanks
to these support walls or “andenes” , fields were set up on
the andean slopes (sometimes on more than 60 degree slopes), being a practical
side-effect that eluviation was counteracted.
Another technical innovation of the Incas was the irrigation system, which
was extended to the whole territory of the Inca-empire. The whole system
was carved out of pure stone, the steped terraces made it possible for
the water to run down the valley. In this way all fields were watered.
Nowadays the farmers in the Andes still use this irrigation system and
the terraces for their potatoe and corn cultivation.
And those who want to see this amazing invention with their own eyes,
have to travel definitely to the Andes. A good starting point is Cusco,
the ancient heart of the Inca empire.
| Links: |
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Read more about destinations and accommodations in the highlands on our web-pages. Or just write us an email to info@peruline.com |
| TRAVEL
NOTES |
Today we have to get up really early, because we are going to spend the
day on horseback. Our starting point of the horse-tour is 30km outside
of Lima in a small village named Mamacona.
On our arrival, some beautiful “paso”-horses are already waiting
for us. And after the horses are saddeled the tourguide tells us the secret
of this special horses.
Because of its special gait, the “paso”, the Peruvian paso
horse is not comparable with other horses. The step sequence of the paso
is not as usual diagonal, the horse moves foreleg and hind leg of one
side at the same time. Thanks to this movement the rider can sit comfortable
in the saddle and thinks to hover about the earth. In the past the riding
horse was the only fast way of transport due to the landscape in Peru.
So they needed a strong and persistent horse with a calme character. But
above all, the horse had to be easy to ride. The paso horse complies all
these conditions and is the perfect long-range route horse.
Sitting in the saddle, we can affirm the incredible comfort of these horses,
and even the primary sceptic rookies are after some minutes totally enthusiastic.
Our first destination is the beach. We shoo away a flock of birds and
then we propel our horses into the sea.
After this refreshment our guide leads us at a good pace to the ruins
of Pachacamac, where we visit everything comfortably on horseback. After
the sightseeing a break is planned, but we feel so good that we want to
keep on riding, and we convince our guide that we are ready for the way
home without a break.
Arriving the stables we dismount, we thank the horses for this wonderful
day and we decide that this was not the last tour on horseback.
| Links: |
| Did you made a special experience in Peru and would like to tell us about it? We publish your experience on our webpage. Just contact us to info@peruline.com. |
| DID
YOU KNOW, ...? |
... that there are 1.769 glaciers in Peru?
... that the first genetic catalog of Peruvian plants already contained 3000 different species?
... that Peru has more than 50 mountains which are higher than 6000 metres?
| ABOUT
US |
peruline is a tourist information service about Peru. Many tourist enterprises support and finance our promotion and information job. Our main objective is to benefit the sponsor companies as well as the country itself.
Our services at a glance:
- Callcenter in Germany and delivery of information material free of charge
- Route planning for individual travelers
- Help with reservations info@peruline.com
- Information about hotels, lodges and language schools
- Suggestions for trips in Peru and useful links on our web site www.peruline.com
- Organization of press trips
- Photo archives
Our monthly newsletter informs you about the latest Peru news. This newsletter
was written by Sarah Blaettner.
If you have suggestions and ideas for our newsletter, we would be pleased
to receive your e-mail. Your
feedback is welcome! We also thank you for your comments about our web
page.
Please also visit our tourist information service for Ecuador www.ecuadorline.com
and for Bolivia www.bolivialine.com.
With best wishes from Lima,
Yours, Sünje Fischer
peruline
By constant disturbance of the wild seabirds and due to the fact that
many seabirds were killed by the recurrent natural desaster “El
Niño“, the profits declined drastically and in 1971 the boom
was over, when the return only represents 5% of the profits reached during
the last century. Another reason for the end of the boom was the invention
of the artificial fertilizer, which little by little replaced the natural
fertilizer.