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Tags: Summer-Vacations-With-An-Edge / Active Travel / Desert Travel / Peru Travel / Green Travel / → All Tags

Summer Vacations With an Edge: Sandboarding In Peru

It turns out that the highest sand dune in the world is Peru's Cerro Blanco, which rises more than 2,000m above the ground and more or less resembles a mountain. It also turns out that if you want to sandboard down the side of it, Peru Adventure Tours is more than willing to put together a package for you, drive you out there in a sand buggy, and watch as you indulge in one of the world's most extreme sports.

Sandboarding is an all-season sport, one of the upshots of basing an activity out of a desert. Sandboarders either stand on snowboard-like boards or lie down on mats for "trayboarding," and try to pull off the same tricks that snowboarders do. That means catching air, doing tricks, and carving up the ground. Instead of kicking up snow, though, these athletes shred grainy sand. And instead of getting to ride sky lifts up picturesque mountains, they have to access some of the most unforgiving environments in the world.

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Tags: Pirates / Crime / Cruises / Amazon Travel / → All Tags

Pirates Pop Up In The Amazon To Rob Luxury River Cruise

Although we'd love to believe that Johnny Depp's Captain Jack Sparrow is the only noteworthy pirate of the last few years, the reality is that pirates are back in a big way, and an event this week proves that they aren't just confined to the treacherous waters off of Somalia.

On Sunday, the Aqua, a luxury river cruising boat just beginning a turn down the Amazon, was boarded and raided by six weapon-wielding bandits who robbed the vessel's 24 passengers of money and other valuables. Luckily that's all the pirates took as no cruisers were hurt. After returning to port in Iquitos, Peru, the passengers were sent home care of Aqua Expeditions, who also refunded them for the entire cruise—prices per person for the cruise began at $4,500—and tried to mollify them by offering a free future cruise.

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Tags: Summer-Signature-Cocktails-Map / Drinking Travel / Peru Travel / South America / → All Tags

Double The Pisco Sour In Peru, Double The Fun

While the summer is at its peak and you're no doubt tired of chugging bottled water under the sun at tourist sites, we're going to hit some of the world's best watering holes and down their famous summer cocktails. Bottoms up!

For many, a trip down to Peru means some serious Macchu Picchu trekking, but we're frankly more interested in chasing down the best of the country's official drink: The Pisco Sour. Although Chile also lays claim to this tart concoction, the master of the double-sized, or Catedral, Pisco Sour is definitely in the center of Lima at the Hotel Bolivar.

A member of the classic grand dame hotels of the world, the Bolivar was a home-away-from-home for dignitaries and Hollywood stars like Ava Gardner, who was known to favor the Catedral Pisco Sours of the bar. We'll also freely admit to salivating at the mere mention of any "sour" cocktails, so Lima it is. No need to stay the night at the Gran Hotel Bolivar however, as only the bar and the building's architecture remember the golden days; the rooms leave something to be desired.

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Tags: Peru Travel / World Heritage Sites / → All Tags

Nazca Lines Get Colored In By Rains

Travelers to Peru at the moment might be a bit disappointed that the famed Nazca Lines are not looking quite the same as usual. These dramatic two-thousand-year-old drawings are a bit worse for wear because heavy rains have "changed" them a bit.

The rains have left a layer of white clay over several of the geoglyphs. This layer's hanging around despite this confident but obviously wrong sentence in the Wikipedia entry on the Nazca Lines:

The dry, windless, stable climate of the plateau has preserved the lines to this day.

Oops. Presumably someone'll edit that soon to say almost preserved the lines. The good news is that local archaeologists say the changes are reversible, so we might get the old Nazca Lines back sometime.

Related Stories:
· Heavy Rains Alter Peru's Famed Nazca Lines [Jaunted]
· Volunteer Travel: Experience the Real Peru [Jaunted]
· Peruvian Pyramid Discovered Using Satellite Data [Jaunted]

[Photo: Scubaben]

Tags: Food Travel / Travel Trends / Restaurants / → All Tags

Trendsetters Agree: Peru Is For Foodies

It's official: The 2009 foodie trend-before-it-even-happens is Peruvian. Last week we brought you Epicurious' prediction that Peruvian cuisine would be all the rage in 2009, and we found a few stateside restos where you can chow down on the new hotness.

But now tricky Bon Appetit has gone and one-upped the 'curious. From the '09 predictions list in BA's January issue:

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Tags: World's-Best-Vegetarian-Restaurants / Food Travel / Restaurants / → All Tags

World's Best Vegetarian Restaurants: The Fruits of Lima

Are you ready to expand your palate? Put down that steak and look beyond the salad plate at the world's best vegetarian restaurants.

The stereotype alone of South Americans as ardent meat eaters may put off vegetarian and vegan travelers altogether--or worse, leave them scrambling for the local equivalent of the granola bar. (Avoid!) But Lima's El Paraiso Bio Leben is not only a great source of cheap veggie food, it presents an alternative to all that churrascaria madness.

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Tags: Pyramids / Archaeological Tourism / Archaeology / → All Tags

Archaeological Travel: Peruvian Pyramid Discovered Using Satellite Data

Sometimes it's nice to be reminded that there's still lots of cool stuff we haven't yet discovered in this world. Italian researchers announced on Friday that they had found an ancient adobe pyramid along the river Nazca, near Peru's Cahuachi Desert, along with two other structures that have yet to be identified. The three structures were likely built by the Nazca civilization, who occupied the area from about 100 B.C. to 500 A.D., when a series of disasters forced them to abandon what appears to be the world's largest mud city.

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Tags: Festivals / Festival Travel / Summer Travel / Food Travel / Animals / → All Tags

Peru's Guinea Pig Festival Doesn't End Well

The seaside town of Huacho, Peru just hosted what could be the world's cutest contest--if it weren't for how it ended. It was the Huacho Guinea Pig Festival.

Things got started when some of the small rodents got dressed up for the animal fashion show, where this year's big looks were miner and king. But the winning guinea pig was done up as a traditional folk singer; it won thanks not just to a great outfit but its name: Yasmina del Amor.

But those rodents not on the proverbial runway suffered a more brutal fate: They were fried, roasted and baked and enjoyed by festival goers as part of a cook-off. Who won? The pachamanca masters out of the nearby village of Curay.

Related Stories:
· Huacho Guinea Pig Festival [Huacho.info, in Spanish]
· Guinea Pigs Dress up for Dinner [Sky News]
· Festivals coverage [Jaunted]

[Original photo: Telegraph]

Tags: Honky-Tonk-Surf-Towns / Surfing / Active Travel / → All Tags

Honky Tonk Surf Towns: Punta Hermosa

Ever in search of the real (or imagined) next thing, The New York Times was off surfing in Peru lately. And the little surfing town of Punta Hermosa was the standout in a country fully stocked with deserted beaches.

It sounds like something we'd definitely wanna get in on:

Curling waves fan out in all directions like Neptune's block party. Each break point presents a different challenge. There's Kon Tiki, which offers untamed waves so massive that it takes a strong arm even to paddle out to it; La Isla, where homegrown pros...can often be found; and Pico Alto, a brawny break with swells that can range up to 25 feet high.

Most people won't be tackling those waves, so the Times has info on a couple other surf destinations that are well off the beaten path. (We're talking epic taxi rides and Soviet-era puddle-jumpers.) These aren't the types of towns you just jet to for a weekend, but from the sound of it you could definitely melt into the sand if you had a week or two to spend in Peru.

Related Stories:
· Riding the Waves of Peru [NYT]
· Honky Tonk Surf Towns Map [Jaunted]
· Surfing coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: quiquemendizabal]

Tags: It's Summer Somewhere / It's-Summer-Somewhere / Adventure Travel / Active Travel / Rafting / → All Tags

It's Summer Somewhere: Lunahuana, Peru

The area around Lima, Peru is just hitting its peak summer season now. But don't get overwhelmed by the bustle of the city. Get to some of the amazing towns further afield, like Lunahuana, south of Lima.

February brings the laid-back festival of grapes and wine, where the local harvest is celebrated extensively. Lunahuana makes some of the best pisco around and is a pretty peaceful agricultural town--but there's a nice dash of adventure sports to keep things interesting. The Cañete River makes a great spot for kayaking, fishing, hunting and hiking.

Since the snow is melting in the Andes, river rafting is a big draw this time of year. Ask around for local tour operators or go with Rio Cañete Expediciones, Lonely Planet's favorite outfitter.

Related Stories:
· Rio Cañete Expediciones [Official Site, in Spanish]
· Guide to Lunahuana [Yahoo]
· Peru Travel coverage [Jaunted]
· It's Summer Somewhere coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Rio Cañete Expediciones]

Tags: Machu Picchu / Seven Wonders of the World / Tourist Traps / → All Tags

Mobs Descend on Machu Picchu

We like to think that Machu Picchu really is a great destination, not to be detracted from just because it wound up on the biased and strange New 7 Wonders list. So it shouldn't come as any surprise to hear that tourist numbers to Peru's famous Inca ruins are rising rapidly.

Unfortunately we're not sure if this is a good thing. With tourist numbers constantly rising in the past decade--they'd already reached 400,000 a year in 2003, and 850,000 are predicted this year--they'll soon reach the one million a year mark. Disregarding peaks in tourist traffic, that means on average we'll have to share Machu Picchu with another 3,000 cameras and backpacks on the day we visit, and that makes a remote scenic ruin turn into something of a tourist trap.

Related Stories:
· 800,000 Tourists to Visit Machu Picchu [Living in Peru]
· Waterworld II: Machu Picchu Island [Jaunted]
· New 7 Wonders of the World Announced [Jaunted]

[Photo: Marc Schandro]

Tags: South America / Dangerous Travel / → All Tags

Dangerous Travel: See Crater, Get Sick In Peru

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but just a day trip in Peru can make you sick, too. Dozens of people reported headaches and nausea this week after going to visit a crater possibly caused by a meteorite near Lake Titicaca.

The 22-foot deep hole may have released gases that caused locals and sightseers headaches and nausea. (That, or it was an attack planned by aliens. Paging Will Smith!) While going to see a meteorite crater it isn't a day at Six Flags, but it can be hard to resist the allure of really big, exciting geologic events. How far would you go to get that "wow" vacation photo?

Related Stories:
· Peruvians Get Sick From Apparent Meteorite Crater [Yahoo]
· South America Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Yahoo! News]